Analysis of the Gut Microbiome and Dietary Habits in Metastatic Melanoma Patients with a Complete and Sustained Response to Immunotherapy

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Immunotherapy is the basis for treating metastatic melanoma. However, most patients will not achieve complete remission. While we have yet to determine which patients will respond to immunotherapy, a growing body of evidence emphasizes the role of gut microbiome and diet. Our study wanted to evaluate whether metastatic melanoma patients with a complete and sustained response to immunotherapy, which was previously thought to be a homogeneous group, exhibited different dietary habits and gut microbiome based on the time required to achieve a response. We showed that patients who exhibited complete remission after more than 9 months since the start of immunotherapy reported a significantly lower intake of proteins and sweets and a higher intake of flavones. They also exhibited a particular microbiome profile, previously associated with an improved response to immunotherapy. These results suggested that particular microbiome and diet are associated with a late and sustained response to immunotherapy. ABSTRACT: Immunotherapy has improved the prognosis of metastatic melanoma patients, although most patients do not achieve a complete response. While specific gut microbiome and dietary habits might influence treatment success, there is a lack of concordance between the studies, potentially due to dichotomizing patients only into responders and non-responders. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether metastatic melanoma patients with complete and sustained response to immunotherapy exhibit differences in gut microbiome composition among themselves, and whether those differences were associated with specific dietary habits. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing revealed that patients who exhibited a complete response after more than 9 months of treatment (late responders) exhibited a significantly higher beta-diversity (p = 0.02), with a higher abundance of Coprococcus comes (LDA 3.548, p = 0.010), Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum (LDA 3.392, p = 0.024), and lower abundance of Prevotellaceae (p = 0.04) compared to early responders. Furthermore, late responders exhibited a different diet profile, with a significantly lower intake of proteins and sweets and a higher intake of flavones (p < 0.05). The research showed that metastatic melanoma patients with a complete and sustained response to immunotherapy were a heterogeneous group. Patients with a late complete response exhibited microbiome and dietary habits which were previously associated with an improved response to immunotherapy.