Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, causing more than 600,000 deaths every year. The human microbiome is increasingly recognized as a key regulator of cancer initiation, progression, and therapeutic response. Postbiotics—defined as non-viable microbial cells and/or their structural components and metabolites that confer health benefits—are emerging as promising and safer alternatives to live probiotics in oncology. This review provides a comprehensive mechanistic overview of the potential role of postbiotics against cancer, with a specific focus on breast cancer. Preclinical evidence demonstrates that selected postbiotics exert dose- and time-dependent anticancer effects against multiple breast cancer subtypes by modulating key oncogenic pathways (such as PI3K/AKT and NF-κB) and inducing epigenetic regulation through histone deacetylase inhibition. Beyond direct effects on tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis, postbiotics influence the breast cancer microenvironment by reshaping cytokine networks, suppressing pro-metastatic inflammation, and enhancing antitumor immune responses through the activation of NK cells and T cells. We also provide emerging links between microbiome composition, estrobolome activity, and breast cancer subtype-specific biology. Despite these encouraging findings, the clinical translation of postbiotics in oncology remains limited. Currently, only one registered clinical trial investigates postbiotics in the oncology setting (melanoma), and no clinical trials have specifically evaluated postbiotics in breast cancer patients. This highlights a substantial translational gap between preclinical evidence and clinical application. Accordingly, well-designed, tumor-specific clinical trials are urgently needed to validate the safety, efficacy, and therapeutic potential of postbiotics as novel strategies in personalized breast cancer management.
Luongo et al. (Mon,) studied this question.