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Fecal transplants, which are made of poop and microbes, can be used to fight melanoma.
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The procedure involves transplanting healthy poop into the intestine of a skin cancer patient.
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One study suggests that these transplants may help patients respond better to immunotherapy.
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Fecal transplants are being singled out as a promising new treatment for patients with a severe form of skin cancer, according to research seen by The Guardian.
Transplants, made from poop and microbes, can be used to help melanoma sufferers.
The procedure would involve transplanting feces from a healthy donor into the intestines of a melanoma patient, the newspaper said.
This, in turn, can help the patient respond better to immunotherapy, the research suggests.
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Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, often requires different types of immunotherapy for treatment.
There is evidence from this study that suggests that the chances of successful immunotherapeutic treatment may be increased by fecal transplants.
In the study, healthy stools were removed from seven people who responded positively to the immunotherapeutic drug pembrolizumab. The feces were then transplanted into the intestines of 15 melanoma patients.
After receiving the transplant, patients were prescribed pembrolizumab every three weeks. They were monitored for a period of one year, reported The Guardian.
The research showed that six of the patients responded positively to the drugs, with three of them observing a great reduction or total eradication of skin cancer.
Among all patients, there were promising signs of increased survival time. Average survival time has increased from seven to 14 months, the newspaper said.
Although the results offer hope for the treatment of melanoma patients, the study was conducted only in a small number of patients.
The study authors told The Guardian that they hope to carry out the tests on a large group of melanoma patients and to test the impact of fecal transplants on other types of cancer.
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