An exploratory study of a multi-species probiotic formulation and markers of health in a real-world oncological cohort in the time of covid.

A multi-strain probiotic formulation was safe and tolerated in this chronically ill cohort that were undergoing oncological treatment. The probiotic formulation alleviated diarrhoea, constipation and maintained stool consistency/frequency during the multiple treatments with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Intestinal dysbiosis that is characterised by decreased microbial diversity and increased pro-inflammatory species was not observed. Probiotic supplementation may have helped reduce dysbiosis during cancer treatments. These improvements may have been critical with the observation that emotional wellbeing was significantly improved from baseline. Hence albeit that the study had limitations, the probiotic intervention provided adjunctive treatment support to the patients. What is of scientifically plausible interest is that probiotics have a long association historically with human hosts and as such ratify their inclusion offering a significant adjunctive therapeutic potential. Future studies warrant larger sample sizes, control groups and should limit recruitment to a largely homogenous group of patients.