Grant: Team Grant: Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention - General Pool

The gut microbiome, which is made up of billions of bacteria in our digestive system, is becoming more recognized as a key part of our overall health. These bacteria help manage many chronic diseases and support our immune system. The microbes in our gut have different functions. One important job of these bacteria is producing compounds that are essential for our health. The gut microbiome can be affected by diet, exercise, and medications. Our research has found a two-way relationship between the gut microbiome and prostate cancer. We found that aggressiveness of prostate cancer can affect the types of bacteria in the gut, and in turn, those bacteria may help the cancer grow. Our early results show that men with different stages of prostate cancer have different types of gut bacteria. Even more interestingly, men who are at risk of prostate cancer - but don't yet have a diagnosis - show bacterial differences depending on whether they eventually develop cancer. This suggests that gut bacteria could play a role in both the development and severity of prostate cancer. We also know that lifestyle factors like diet can affect both gut bacteria and how aggressive prostate cancer is. In other types of cancer, gut microbes have been linked to how well patients respond to treatment, but this hasn't yet been studied in prostate cancer. In this study, we aim to better understand the connection between gut bacteria, lifestyle, and prostate cancer development and aggressiveness. First, we will test how gut bacteria from men with and without prostate cancer affect cancer development in laboratory models. We will also recruit 450 men at risk of prostate cancer to study their gut bacteria, diet, lifestyle and health over time. Our goal is to find gut bacterial signatures that could help predict who will develop prostate cancer and how severe it might become - opening the door to better prevention and more personalized care.