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The role of the microbiota in many diseases including cancer has gained increasing attention. Paired with this is our expanding appreciation for the heterogeneity of the neutrophil compartment regarding surface marker expression and functionality. In this review, we will discuss the influence of the microbiota on granulopoiesis and consequent activity of neutrophils in cancer. As evidence for this microbiota-neutrophil-cancer axis builds, it exposes new therapeutic targets to improve a cancer patient's outcome., (©2018 Society for Leukocyte Biology.)

Commensal microorganisms (the microbiota) live on all the surface barriers of our body and are particularly abundant and diverse in the distal gut. The microbiota and its larger host represent a metaorganism in which the cross talk between microbes and host cells is necessary for health, survival, and regulation of physiological functions locally, at the barrier level, and systemically. The ancestral molecular and cellular mechanisms stemming from the earliest interactions between prokaryotes and eukaryotes have evolved to mediate microbe-dependent host physiology and tissue homeostasis, including innate and adaptive resistance to infections and tissue repair. Mostly because of its effects on metabolism, cellular proliferation, inflammation, and immunity, the microbiota regulates cancer at the level of predisposing conditions, initiation, genetic instability, susceptibility to host immune response, progression, comorbidity, and response to therapy. Here, we review the mechanisms underlying the interaction of the microbiota with cancer and the evidence suggesting that the microbiota could be targeted to improve therapy while attenuating adverse reactions.

Purpose/objectives: To review the particular needs of older patients with cancer with respect to sexuality and to present appropriate nursing strategies to facilitate adjustment., Data Sources: Books, journals, and American Cancer Society publications., Data Synthesis: Physical and emotional changes caused by diagnosis and treatment of cancer often are compounded in the older patient. Of particular concern is sexual adjustment, which already may be compromised by the effects of aging on normal sexual functioning, absence of a partner, or personal/societal prohibitions against sexuality in this population., Conclusions: Exercise, nutrition, and self-esteem intervention programs, coupled with strategies to facilitate sexual activity that take into account normal aging, can help older patients with cancer to reestablish usual sexual functioning., Implications for Nursing Practice: Nurses must establish a comfort level with sexual assessment and patient intervention so that they can provide counseling and suggest appropriate interventions.