Fecal transplants, made up of poop and microbes, showcased as promising new treatment for skin cancer patients

• Fecal transplants, made up of droppings and microbes, could be used to fight melanoma.

• The procedure involves transplanting healthy poop into the intestine of a patient with skin cancer.

• A study suggests that these transplants may help patients respond better to immunotherapy.

• Visit Insider’s Business section for more stories.

Fecal transplants are being touted as a promising new treatment for patients with severe form of skin cancer, according to a study seen by The Guardian.

Transplants, which are made up of poop and microbes, could be used to help people with melanoma.

Related: How COVID-19 Affects People With Diabetes, Cancer

The procedure would involve transplanting stool from a healthy donor into the intestine of a patient with melanoma, according to the journal.

This, in turn, may help the patient respond better to immunotherapy, research suggests.

Read more: How a Dallas doctor partnered with “Shark Tank” investor Mark Cuban to cut prices for rare drugs by 90% or more.

Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, often requires different types of immunotherapy for treatment.

There are signs from this study that suggest that the chances of success with immunotherapy treatment may be increased by fecal transplants.

In the study, healthy stools were collected from seven people who responded positively to the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. The stool was then transplanted into the intestines of 15 patients with melanoma.

After receiving the transplant, patients were prescribed pembrolizumab every three weeks. They were then monitored for a period of one year, The Guardian reported.

Research has shown that six of the patients responded positively to the drugs, with three of them seeing a sharp decrease or complete eradication of skin cancer.

Among all patients, there were promising signs of an increased survival time. The median survival time fell from seven months to 14 months, according to the newspaper.

While the results offer hope for the treatment of patients with melanoma, the study was only conducted on a small number of patients.

The study’s authors told the Guardian that they hoped to conduct the trials on a large group of melanoma patients and test the impact of fecal transplants on other cancers.

Read the original article on Business Insider