The collection of microbes that live in and on the human body – the human microbiome – can impact on cancer initiation, progression, and response to therapy, including cancer immunotherapy. The mechanisms by which microbiomes impact on cancers can yield new diagnostics and treatments, but much remains unknown. The interactions between microbes, diet, host factors, drugs, and cell–cell interactions within the cancer itself likely involve intricate feedbacks, and no single component can explain all the behavior of the system. Understanding the role of host-associated microbial communities in cancer systems will require a multidisciplinary approach combining microbial ecology, immunology, cancer cell biology, and computational biology – a systems biology approach.

生存在人体中和人体上的微生物（人类微生物组）的集合会影响癌症的发生，发展以及对包括癌症免疫疗法在内的各种疗法的反应。微生物群对癌症的影响机制可以产生新的诊断和治疗方法，但很多仍然未知。癌症本身内部的微生物，饮食，宿主因素，药物和细胞间相互作用之间的相互作用可能涉及复杂的反馈，并且没有任何单一成分可以解释系统的所有行为。要了解与宿主相关的微生物群落在癌症系统中的作用，需要采用多学科方法，将微生物生态学，免疫学，癌细胞生物学和计算生物学相结合，这是一种系统生物学方法。