How Gut Bacteria Are Shaking Up Cancer Research

  • Roche says it plans to study role of microbiome in cancer
  • Vedanta expects more drug companies to enter the field

A researcher looks at a slide of a human colon cancer tumor.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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Top scientists at Roche Holding AG and AstraZeneca Plc are sizing up potential allies in the fight against cancer: the trillions of bacteria that live in the human body.

"Five years ago, if you had asked me about bacteria in your gut playing an important role in your systemic immune response, I probably would have laughed it off," Daniel Chen, head of cancer immunotherapy research at Roche’s Genentech division, said in a phone interview. "Most of us immunologists now believe that there really is an important interaction there."