A recent article explains how is it possible that a complex probiotic such as Bravo (an entire ecosystem, not merely a probiotic according to the world authority on autism, the late Dr. Bradstreet) can work on cancers that are so far away from the gut where the microbes of Bravo arrive once they are ingested. The article by Choi et al. clearly demonstrated that anti-cancer microbes such as the Bifidobacteria – one of the major constituents of Bravo – are carried by cells of the immune system from the gut to the site of cancer, no matter how distant it is. Bravo is unique among probiotics because it contains not only the anti-cancer/health-supporting microbes but also the molecules – such as GcMAF – that stimulate the cells of the immune system and allow them to carry the microbes to the site of the tumor. 

Once the anti-cancer/health-supporting microbes arrive at the site of the tumor, they stimulate the local immune response against the cancer cells and this is what is demonstrated in the article quoted above. 

However, and this is a big “however”, Bravo does something more once its microbes have reached the site of the tumor, wherever it is. Because Bravo, unique among all probiotics in the world, also contains phages. As you know, phages are the friendly viruses carried by the probiotic microbes; the function of the phages is to kill pathogenic microbes and they have been used for this scope, as natural antibiotics, for centuries.  

In order to fully understand the potential of Bravo in fighting cancer through phages, it is important to remember that each tumor has its own microbiome, also called oncobiome, that is essential for the tumor to survive and grow. The oncobiome is different from the microbiome of healthy tissues and each cancer has its own oncobiome. However, the microbes of the oncobiome are located inside the cancer cells and, because of this, they are not affected by antibiotics, otherwise, cancer could be cured with conventional antibiotics and this obviously is not the case.  

Here, the phages of Bravo enter into action because they, being viruses, are able to enter cancer cells (see this article for details) and, once inside the cancer cell, they kill the intracellular bacteria as well as the cancer cell. 

In short, in addition to stimulating the immune system with GcMAF and other molecules, the microbes of Bravo reach the cancer site and, once there, they further stimulate the local immune system and, thanks to the presence of phages, kill the intracellular microbes that help cancer cell grow. 

Although it may appear counterintuitive, the fact that the phages of Bravo kill the bacteria inside the cancer cells is even more important than killing the cancer cells themselves. In fact, if one kills the cancer cells, for example with chemo- or radio-therapy, the intracellular bacteria, that are intrinsically resistant to anti-cancer therapies, will be released and will then colonize other cancer cells thus perpetuating the growth of the cancer. This is one of the reasons why chemo- or radio-therapy has only limited success and is often followed by relapses. However, since the phages of Bravo kill first the intracellular bacteria and then the cancer cells, with Bravo the mechanism is much more effective. If Bravo is used together with conventional anti-cancer therapies, the efficacy will be multiplied. 

As a matter of fact, cancer therapy with phages has been proposed for centuries; however, its limited efficacy was due to the fact that phages alone were used. In the case of Bravo, we do not use phages alone, but the phages that are naturally present inside the microbes of Bravo. It is the microbes of Bravo that, once they have stimulated the immune system in the gut, are carried to the site of the tumor and, once there, release the phages that do the trick. 

As demonstrated in the article by Choi et al., transfer of probiotics to the site of the tumor is best achieved in concomitance with conventional immuno-therapy or even chemo-therapy and this opens the perspective to use Bravo together with conventional anti-cancer therapies thus maximizing the effects of these, at the same time minimizing their side effect.