Dietary patterns and specific dietary components, in concert with the gut microbiota, can jointly shape susceptibility, resistance and therapeutic response to cancer. Which diet–microbial interactions contribute to or mitigate carcinogenesis and how they work are important questions in this growing field. Here we interpret studies of diet–microbial interactions to assess dietary determinants of intestinal colonization by opportunistic and oncogenic bacteria. We explore how diet-induced expansion of specific gut bacteria might drive colonic epithelial tumorigenesis or create immuno-permissive tumour milieus and introduce recent findings that provide insight into these processes. Additionally, we describe available preclinical models that are widely used to study diet, microbiome and cancer interactions. Given the rising clinical interest in dietary modulations in cancer treatment, we highlight promising clinical trials that describe the effects of different dietary alterations on the microbiome and cancer outcomes.

饮食模式和特定的饮食成分与肠道微生物群相结合，可以共同影响癌症的易感性、抵抗力和治疗反应。哪些饮食与微生物的相互作用会促进或减轻致癌作用，以及它们如何发挥作用，是这个不断发展的领域中的重要问题。在这里，我们解释饮食与微生物相互作用的研究，以评估机会性细菌和致癌细菌肠道定植的饮食决定因素。我们探索饮食诱导的特定肠道细菌的扩张如何驱动结肠上皮肿瘤发生或产生免疫许可的肿瘤环境，并介绍最新的发现，为这些过程提供深入的了解。此外，我们描述了广泛用于研究饮食、微生物组和癌症相互作用的可用临床前模型。鉴于临床对癌症治疗中饮食调节的兴趣日益浓厚，我们重点介绍了一些有前景的临床试验，这些试验描述了不同饮食改变对微生物组和癌症结果的影响。