The human gut microbiota regulates many host pathophysiological processes including metabolic, inflammatory, immune and cellular responses. In recent years, the incidence and mortality of lung cancer have increased rapidly, which is one of the biggest challenges in the field of cancer treatment today, especially in non-small cell lung cancer. Animal models and clinical studies have found that the gut microbiota of non-small cell lung cancer patients is significantly changed compared with the healthy people. The gut microbiota and metabolites can not only play a pro-cancer or tumor suppressor role by regulating immune, inflammatory responses and so on, but also be related with radiotherapy and chemotherapy of non-small cell lung cancer and the resistance of immunotherapy. Therefore, gut microbiota and related metabolites can be both potential markers for early diagnosis and prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and novel therapeutic targets for targeted drugs. This study will review the latest research progress of effect of gut microbiota on non-small cell lung cancer, and provide a new diagnosis and treatment ideas for non-small cell lung cancer.
