Cancer being a multiplex disease which involves many genomic and physiological alterations that occur consistently in the cancerous tissue, making the treatment and management of the disease even more complicated. The human gut microbiota (GM) harbors collective genomes of microbes comprising of trillions of bacteria along with fungi, archaea, and viruses that have the tendency to affect the development and progression of cancer. Moreover, inter-microbial interactions, diversity and distinct differences among the GM populations could influence the course of disease, making the microbiome an ideal target or to be modulated in such a way so as to improve cancer therapeutics with better efficacy and reduced toxicity. Current review focuses upon exploring the association of gut microbiota with the progression of cancer for which a structured search of bibliographic databases for peer-reviewed research literature has been carried out using focused review questions and inclusion/exclusion criteria. Through this review one could envisage a wide-spectrum role of microbiota in maintaining host metabolism, immune homeostasis paving the way for an anticancer diagnostic and therapeutic solution that has the potential to counter the menace of anti-cancer drug resistance as well.

癌症是一种多重疾病，涉及在癌组织中持续发生的许多基因组和生理学改变，使疾病的治疗和管理更加复杂。人类肠道微生物群 (GM) 拥有由数万亿个细菌以及真菌、古生菌和病毒组成的微生物集体基因组，这些微生物具有影响癌症发展和进展的趋势。此外，转基因种群之间的微生物间相互作用、多样性和明显差异可能会影响疾病的进程，使微生物组成为理想的靶标或以这样的方式进行调节，从而以更好的疗效和降低的毒性改善癌症治疗。目前的审查侧重于探索肠道微生物群与癌症进展的关联，为此，已经使用重点审查问题和纳入/排除标准对书目数据库进行了结构化搜索，以获取同行评审的研究文献。通过这篇综述，人们可以设想微生物群在维持宿主新陈代谢、免疫稳态方面的广谱作用，为抗癌诊断和治疗解决方案铺平道路，该解决方案也有可能对抗抗癌药物耐药性的威胁。