Cancerwise

One bold idea changed Erez Baruch’s life.

As a young graduate student in Israel, Baruch, now an M.D., Ph.D., and a team of researchers decided to embark on a study unlike any other.

Data published in the mid 2010s suggested that there was a connection between the microbiome — the bacteria in the gut — and the effectiveness of immunotherapy, particularly for melanoma patients.

Baruch and the rest of the team decided to test this with a clinical trial using fecal transplants. Melanoma patients whose cancer resisted immunotherapy underwent a colonoscopy and received the feces of patients who were cancer-free after immunotherapy. The team also gave the recipients oral pills containing the donors’ dried stool.

The results were remarkable. The gut microbiomes of all patients changed to more closely match the donors’. And, most importantly, in three of the 10 patients, the change appeared to boost their response to immunotherapy. Tumors were shrinking.

“It was a crazy idea,” Baruch says. “Very few people thought it would work, and there was some skepticism around the success.”

But at nearly the same time, another study being conducted across the globe used the same methods and yielded similar positive results.

Baruch presented the results at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, a gathering of the world’s leading oncology researchers.

It was there that he met fellow microbiome researcher and UT MD Anderson surgeon-scientist Jennifer Wargo, M.D.

‘Game-changing science’

An internationally renowned researcher, Wargo has high standards when it comes to science. In 2017, she published a landmark study that illustrated a healthier gut microbiome was linked to a better response to immunotherapy and remains at the forefront of a swiftly emerging field.

She attended Baruch’s AACR presentation and found his research fascinating. It proved in real-life patients what she had been studying for years.  

“There’s good science, and then there’s game-changing science,” she says. “And this was game-changing science.”  

But it wasn’t just the data. She was struck by Baruch’s passion for helping patients.

“I basically rushed over to meet him,” she says.

The two began to talk, and Baruch shared that he was about to complete his Ph.D. and was looking for his next role. He was unsure of where to go next. Wargo suggested he consider Houston. Mere months later, he began his internal medicine residency at The University of Texas Health Science Center, working on his research with nearby UT MD Anderson.