Many oncology patients do not fully recover from their therapy. Exhaustion, neuropathy, mucositis, diarrhea and cachexia remain present for weeks to months, even after treatment is over. These symptoms are often difficult to explain with standard lab or imaging.

Multi-omics brings a new layer here: it reveals how microbiome, metabolites and immune crosstalk determine how well a patient tolerates chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and how recovery proceeds.

The clinical problem

• Chemotherapy and radiotherapy damage not only tumor cells but also healthy tissues, including the microbiome.
• Radiotherapy causes dose-dependent shifts in the microbiome that amplify diarrhea and mucositis(Palkovsky et al., in vivo 2025).
• Chemotherapy (e.g., cisplatin, doxorubicin) leads to loss of microbial diversity and delayed tissue repair(Anderson et al., Cell Host & Microbe 2024).
• Patients differ greatly in toxicity and efficacy → this can be partly explained by pharmacomicrobiomics(Nowicka et al., Biomedicines 2025).

Multi-omics insights in oncology treatments

1. Crosstalk microbiome ↔ chemotherapy
   - Yang et al, Discover Oncology 2024: microbiome influences metabolic degradation of cytostatic drugs → explains variations in toxicity and response.
2. Radiotherapy & microbiome
   - Vučinić et al, Biomedicines 2025: radiotherapy induces dysbiosis that increases GI toxicity; modulation of microbiome may improve therapy tolerance.
3. Metabolites as modulators
   - Yu et al., BJC 2025: propionate and Bacteroides fragilis metabolites enhance response to neoadjuvant radiotherapy in colorectal carcinoma.
4. Tumor microbiome & hypoxia
   - Benej et al, Cancer Research 2024: tumor-associated microbiota respond to hypoxia and influence radiotherapy efficacy.
5. Recovery mechanisms
   - Anderson et al, Cell Host & Microbe 2024: inter-kingdom communication (human ↔ microbiome) regulates mucosal recovery after chemotherapy.

Innovative solutions for the clinic

1. Treatment Tolerance Profile
   - Multi-omics shows which patients are vulnerable to GI toxicity or cachexia before treatment initiation.
2. Microbiome-Drug Interaction Map
   - Detection of bacterial enzymes that inactivate or toxically metabolize cytostatic drugs.
3. Metabolite monitoring
   - Propionate and SCFA levels as predictors of radiotherapy response and mucosal toxicity.
4. Post-treatment Recovery Index
   - Mitochondrial markers and amino acid profiles show recovery capacity after heavy treatment.

Why My InnerSelfie is unique

• Multi-omics integration: DNA, microbiome and metabolites are analyzed together.
• Crosstalk focus: we make visible how therapies and microbiome interact.
• Preventive precision: risks of toxicity, cachexia or delayed recovery can be signaled in advance.
• Additional tool for the physician: oncology decision making remains in the hands of the physician, we provide an additional dimension for precision care.
• Tomorrow's care: innovative, preventive and always customized. Innovation of today becomes the standard of tomorrow - substantiated, safe, risk-free.

Key insights

• Chemo and radiotherapy interact bidirectionally with the microbiome.
• Multi-omics shows who is at risk for toxicity and who benefits from microbial support.
• My InnerSelfie helps oncologists personalize: fewer side effects, better effectiveness, faster recovery.

Scientific references

• Yang S, Hao S, Ye H, Zhang X. Crosstalk between gut microbiota and cancer chemotherapy: status and trends. Discover Oncol. 2024.
• Palkovsky M, Modrackova N, Neuzil-Bunesova V, et al. Impact of radiotherapy on the human microbiome. in vivo. 2025.
• Nowicka A, Tomczak H, Szałek E, et al. Pharmacomicrobiomics in AML chemotherapy. Biomedicines. 2025.
• Vučinić D, Redžović A, Hauser G. Microbiota and radiotherapy in GI cancers. Biomedicines. 2025.
• Yu L, Guo Q, Gu X, et al. Gut microbiome and radiotherapy efficacy in colorectal cancer. Br J Cancer. 2025.
• Anderson CJ, Boeckaerts L, Chin P, et al. Inter-kingdom communication after chemotherapeutic injury. Cell Host & Microbe. 2024.
• Benej M, Hoyd R, Kreamer MK, et al. Tumor microbiome and radiotherapy under hypoxia. Cancer Res. 2024.