NEO-MICROBE BREAST V 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The NEO-MICROBE BREAST Study: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the gut microbiome in breast cancer
IRAS ID
293817
Contact name
Iain Macpherson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS GG&C
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The way breast cancer responds to chemotherapy is not the always the same between patients. Within our gut there are lots of bacteria that play important roles in keeping us healthy. We believe that these bacteria may also determine which patients achieve the best response to chemotherapy. We know that diet and other interventions can change the bacteria. In this research we hope to identify certain patterns in the bacteria that link with what type of response a patient has to chemotherapy. To do this we will look at blood, stool and tumour samples from women who are having a course of chemotherapy before surgery for breast cancer. We will look into the role that the immune system, gut products and tissues surrounding the cancer may have in working alongside the bacteria. We will try to understand how the bacteria are linked with chemotherapy side effects. We will also collect stool samples from healthy volunteers, who do not have cancer, to compare to samples from the patients with breast cancer.
Overall, we hope to identify specific trends in the gut bacteria, which are associated with a better response to chemotherapy. With future research we would then hope to determine how to recreate these favourable gut bacterial trends in patients, to help them achieve the best response to chemotherapy.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
21/WS/0078
Date of REC Opinion
12 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion