The human microbiome constitutes a complex multikingdom community that symbiotically interacts with the host across multiple body sites. Host-microbiome interactions impact multiple physiological processes and a variety of multifactorial disease conditions. In the past decade, microbiome communities have been suggested to influence the development, progression, metastasis formation, and treatment response of multiple cancer types. While causal evidence of microbial impacts on cancer biology is only beginning to be unraveled, enhanced molecular understanding of such cancer-modulating interactions and impacts on cancer treatment are considered of major scientific importance and clinical relevance. In this review, we describe the molecular pathogenic mechanisms shared throughout microbial niches that contribute to the initiation and progression of cancer. We highlight advances, limitations, challenges, and prospects in understanding how the microbiome may causally impact cancer and its treatment responsiveness, and how microorganisms or their secreted bioactive metabolites may be potentially harnessed and targeted as precision cancer therapeutics.

人类微生物组构成了一个复杂的多界社区，与宿主跨多个身体部位共生。宿主-微生物组相互作用会影响多种生理过程和多种多因素疾病。在过去的十年中，微生物群落被认为会影响多种癌症类型的发展、进展、转移形成和治疗反应。虽然微生物对癌症生物学影响的因果证据才刚刚开始被揭开，但对这种癌症调节相互作用和对癌症治疗的影响的增强分子理解被认为具有重大的科学重要性和临床相关性。在这次审查中，我们描述了整个微生物生态位共享的分子致病机制，这些机制有助于癌症的发生和发展。我们强调了在理解微生物组如何对癌症及其治疗反应性产生因果影响，以及微生物或其分泌的生物活性代谢物如何被潜在地利用和靶向作为精确的癌症治疗方法方面的进展、局限性、挑战和前景。