Exploring the Microbiome in Bladder Cancer Treatment

In this season finale, Carla dives into the emerging research on the microbiome’s role in bladder cancer treatment. Highlighting the study "Bacteria for Treatment: Microbiome in Bladder Cancer" by Min K, Kim HT, Lee EH, Park H, and Ha YS (2022), she discusses the ground breaking potential of targeting the microbiome to support cancer care.

Key Points:

• The Microbiome’s Role in Bladder Cancer - This study reveals how the bladder microbiome, the community of bacteria and microorganisms within the bladder, can impact the body’s immune environment and may influence bladder cancer development and progression.
• Potential Treatments with Probiotics and Antibiotics - Researchers are exploring the therapeutic potential of using specific probiotics, including Bifidobacterium infantis, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota and Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG, to balance the microbiome. These probiotics may help reduce cancer recurrence and enhance immune response, providing new avenues for cancer therapy.
• The Promise of Personalised Microbiome Care - PROSPER Cancer CARE founder, Carla Wrenn, envisions a future where microbiome science allows for personalised, microbiome-focused treatments for cancer patients. When guided by trained practitioners, these approaches may offer safe, tailored care with the potential to improve patient outcomes.

The study’s findings reinforce the growing recognition of the microbiome as a key player in innovative cancer therapies, setting the stage for potential breakthroughs in cancer care.

Thank You for an Incredible Season

As the first season of the PROSPER Natural Cancer Support Podcast concludes, Carla extends her heartfelt gratitude to the cancer patients who entrusted her with their care. Stay tuned for more episodes in 2026, where Carla will continue to explore the latest in natural cancer support.

Catch the Season Recap

Revisit previous episodes on topics like integrative oncology, pathology testing, side effect prevention, managing bone density, and self-care strategies, lifestyle medicine and discover more insights to support your journey or that of a loved one diagnosed with cancer.

Find PROSPER Natural Cancer CARE on Instagram @prosper.cancer.care or visit www.prospercancercare.co.

For more information or to get in touch, connect with Carla on Instagram @carlawrenn or visit www.carlawrenn.com.

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended to be informational only and represents the opinion of the participants, but not necessarily their workplace. It is not intended to be used as medical advice and does not take the place of advice from a qualified health care practitioner in a clinical setting. Please check with your healthcare practitioner before embarking upon any of the treatments or lifestyle changes discussed.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Prosper Natural Cancer Care. I'm Carla Wren. We discuss naturopathic cancer care, integrative oncology, and lifestyle medicine, examining complementary medicine tradition, science, and evidence-based personalized health care for people with cancer. If you or a loved one has a cancer diagnosis, or you're a professional with an interest in complementary medicine or cancer care, you've come to the right place. Let's prosper. But before we start today, let's take a moment to define the word prosper and why it's an important word for me in the work I do. Prosper is defined as to flourish physically, grow strong and healthy, to become strong and flourishing, to cause to succeed or thrive. These words and words like choose hope are important to me as I aim to empower, educate, and encourage people in my practice and on this podcast. Please be sure to take a moment at the end of today's show to listen to the very important disclaimer. Today in Prosper Natural Cancer Care podcast, we're going to talk about exploring the microbiome in bladder cancer treatment. And you may have heard me excitedly talk about cancer and the microbiome in a bit of an overview of a presentation I gave to complementary medicine health practitioners. In a little summary I did in one of our episodes this season. And so if you haven't heard my cancer and microbiome information, you might like to pop back and listen to the episode where I discuss that. You'll find that at episode nine. But let's dive a little bit more into the microbiome, specifically today in bladder cancer. And I'm really interested in bladder cancer as I definitely have seen a rise in bladder cancer in my Prosper Cancer Care Clinic. And so emerging research highlights the critical role of microbiome in bladder cancer. And in the article Bacteria for Treatment, Microbiome in Bladder Cancer, that was published in 2022, the authors delve into the fascinating potential of harnessing probiotic bacterial species for therapeutic purposes. And so again, I'll point you towards the disclaimer for today's session and remind you that any of the information I cover off today may or may not suit you with bladder cancer. And it really depends on where you are in the treatment. Some types of bladder cancer treatment definitely would be appropriate to use probiotic species at that stage. And so popping into Prosper Cancer Care or having a virtual telehealth consultation if you have bladder cancer and interested in incorporating the phenomenal research around bladder cancer and microbiome, it would be a good idea to get that personalized advice. So this study reviews how bladder cancer, again, a significant global health issue, may be influenced by microbial ecosystems and that microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiome, are believed to impact and interact with the bladder immune environment. And so disruptions in this balance have been linked to tumor development, suggesting that targeting specific bacterial populations could be a promising treatment in cancer therapy for bladder cancer. And so that microbiome can be made up of a number of different things. It doesn't just have to be bacteria. We definitely see fungal and yeast infections and also parasitic infections and viral infections all making up part of the microbiome, and it can really have an impact on the overall health of the body and the general gut microbiome, but also you'll see today in bladder cancer. And so the research outlines the potential for using probiotics and antibiotics and even bacterial-based therapies to promote and modulate the microbiome in health to enhance bladder cancer treatments. So probiotics including Bifidobacteria infantilis, bifidobacterium longum, lactobacillus lactis, lactobacillus casei, strain serota, and lactobacillus raminosus strains, particularly GG, all might be appropriate to improve patients' outcomes by reducing reoccurrence rate or enhancing immune responses. And that's a really phenomenal statement because remember, you know, the majority of therapies that are available in the cancer space come with significant side effects. But the risk of probiotics when used appropriately in the right time is very minimal. And, you know, strains like Lactevacillus raminosis, LGG, and Bifidobacterium infantilis do a whole range of things in the body. So while we're using them perhaps specifically to target the microbiome in bladder cancer, we'll be seeing other changes in gut health and immune health, reducing risk of other infections, including things like common colds and flus, gastrointestinal infections, and also improving the health of the gut microbiome and how that impacts your dietary choices and food choices and bowel function. Along with other things, I find the research around the microbiome and areas like bone density or mood probiotics known as psychobiotics fascinating. And some of these species are not just used in bladder cancer, but would also be used to benefit those different areas of microbiome therapies. So at Prosper Cancer Care, we believe that the enhancement of the microbiome could bring about revolutionary changes in the treatment of various cancers, such as bladder cancer. And by examining and treating an individual's microbiome, a more tailored and accurate form of cancer can be offered with minimal risks when overseen by a healthcare practitioner trained in microbiome management. The study that I mentioned, bacteria for treatment microbiome in bladder cancer, that 2022 paper, underscores the importance of microbiome research in advancing innovative cancer therapies. And so it's important to understand that if we're going to use this kind of therapy, we want to make sure that we're getting really great outcomes. The abstract for that paper talks about how the human microbiome contains a variety of microbes and that disruption in these microbes has an effect, you know, that varies from organ to organ. But using them to help to address the fact that the bladder isn't sterile, it contains various microbiome species and microbes. And several studies have shown that when the urine and the bladder tissue is analyzed, the microbiome and the urinary bladder tissue and the urine itself can often have an impact on the human health and how that is linked to bladder cancer. And so a bit of a protocol for analysis of the microbiome is put forward in the paper, and the undertaking of using certain therapies showed significant benefit in patients with urinary tract cancers. So I encourage you to head to that paper. It really does do a deep dive on all the different species, those that should be there and shouldn't be there. The diagrams in the paper are really, really interesting to help you get a snapshot of what is considered to be a beneficial microbiome bladder cancer and the exact hallmarks and findings of what these species are doing, and then how we can use that in our clinical practice is something that really fascinates me. So if you know someone with bladder cancer, please share this podcast with them. If you're someone suffering from bladder issues in general, please make an appointment with a complimentary medicine practitioner specialized in microbiome, particularly a naturopath or nutritionist. Reach out to me and I'll point you in the direction. But if you're looking for oncology support and are interested in addressing your microbiome, whether or not you have urinary tract cancer, kidney cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer or other cancers, check out my microbiome and cancer podcast number nine in this season. And we will be really able to, you know, tap into this great research and it is a volumous amount of research and really start to use this low-cost, low-risk intervention in the right way to improve outcomes, both of treatment but also in general in patients who are currently on a cancer journey or undergoing cancer treatment. Now I hope you loved this first season of Prosper Natural Cancer Care, and I hope this podcast has supported you or a loved one to learn more about the way you can safely use complementary medicine alongside a cancer diagnosis. I wish to thank all the people with cancer that have trusted me with their care in 2024, and I'll be back with new episodes in 2025. For more information on Prosper Natural Cancer Care, visit prospercancercare.co. For more information and to get in touch, please visit Carlarren.com. Disclaimer This podcast is intended to be informational only and represents the opinion of the participants, but not necessarily their workplace. It is not intended to be used as medical advice and does not take the place of advice from a qualified health practitioner in a clinical setting. Please check with your healthcare practitioner before embarking upon any of the treatments or lifestyle changes discussed.