Predicting Response to Immunotherapy for Melanoma With Gut Microbiome and Metabolomics

This study will investigate the effects of gut microbiome diversity (richness in terms of many bacterial species in the gut) on responses and side effects of immunotherapy in advanced melanoma patients. Immunotherapy for melanoma is especially damaging for the gut with colitis which can lead to death and significant morbidity with repeated hospital admissions. The richness of the microbiome in the gut may be protective against colitis and other side effects but this needs to be confirmed. There is also some preliminary evidence that the gut microbiome diversity can enhance responses to immunotherapy in cancer but this has been shown in small numbers of melanoma patients.