Journal of Cancer 2020, Vol. 11 5135 Ivyspring International Publisher Journal of Cancer 2020; 11(17): 5135-5149. doi: 10.7150/jca.47470 Review Antibiotics for cancer treatment: A double-edged sword Yuan Gao1,2, Qingyao Shang1,2, Wenyu Li1,2, Wenxuan Guo1, Alexander Stojadinovic3, Ciaran Mannion3,4, Yan-gao Man3 and Tingtao Chen1 1. National Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Drugs and the Technologies, Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanchang University, 1299 Xuefu Road, Honggu District, Nanchang, 330031 People’s Republic of China. 2. Queen Mary School, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330031, PR China. 3. Department of Pathology, Hackensack University Medical Center, 30 Prospec Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601, USA. 4. Department of Pathology, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, 340 Kingsland Street, Nutley, NJ 07110, USA. Corresponding author: Dr. Tingtao Chen Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330031, PR China; E-mail:
[email protected]; Tel: +86-791-83827170, or Dr. Yan-gao Man, Man Department of Pathology, Hackensack Meridian Health-Hackensack University Medical Center, NJ, USA; e-mail:
[email protected]. © The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). See http://ivyspring.com/terms for full terms and conditions. Received: 2020.04.27; Accepted: 2020.06.14; Published: 2020.06.28 Abstract Various antibiotics have been used in the treatment of cancers, via their anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic and anti-epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) capabilities. However, increasingly studies have indicated that antibiotics may also induce cancer generation by disrupting intestinal microbiota, which further promotes chronic inflammation, alters normal tissue metabolism, leads to genotoxicity and weakens the immune response to bacterial malnutrition, thereby adversely impacting cancer treatment.