In the Cancer Research paper, Schiestl and his team showed that in the mice with more of the beneficial bacteria, the lymphoma took significantly longer to form.

In the new study, the researchers analyzed the metabolites — molecules produced by the gut’s natural metabolic action — in the mice’s urine and feces. The scientists were surprised to find that the mice that were receiving only the beneficial microbiota produced metabolites that are known to prevent cancer. Those mice also had more efficient fat and oxidative metabolism, which the researchers believe might also lower the risk for cancer.


Among the other results, in the mice receiving only the good bacteria, lymphoma formed only half as quickly as it did in the other mice. In addition, mice with the good bacteria lived four times longer and had less DNA damage and inflammation.

“Together, these findings lend credence to the notion that manipulating microbial composition could be used as an effective strategy to prevent or alleviate cancer susceptibility,” the researchers write. “Remarkably, our findings suggest that composition of the gut microbiota influence and alter central carbon metabolism in a genotype independent manner. In the future, it is our hope that the use of probiotics-containing [supplements] would be a potential chemopreventive for normal humans, while the same type of microbiota would decrease tumor incidence in cancer susceptible populations.”

The National Institutes of Health (RO1ES0951907) funded the study.

The study’s co-authors are Irene Maier of UCLA, Al Fornace and Amrita Cheema of Georgetown University, and James Bornaman of UC Riverside. UCLA has a patent pending on the use of Lactobacillus johnsonii 456 as an anti-inflammatory agent.

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