Microorganisms in the Treatment of Cancer: Advantages and Limitations

Table 1

A representative list of microorganisms used/planned to be used in anticancer therapy.

Microorganism	Strain/antigen	Cancer	Type of treatment	Deployment
Mycobacterium bovis	Atenuated strain Calmette-Guérin	Superficial bladder cancer	Complementary therapy	Commonly used
Streptococcus pyogenes	OK-432	Lymphangioma	Alternative therapy for surgical treatment	Commonly used
Clostridium novyi	Strain NT	Solid tumors	No data	Clinical trials
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium	Strain VNP20009	Melanoma	No data	Clinical trials
Magnetococcus marinus	MC1	Solid tumors and some metabolic tumors	Additional therapy supporting chemotherapy	Experimental research (animal studies)
Toxoplasma gondii	CPS/TLA	Pancreas, lung and ovarian cancer, and melanoma	No data	Experimental research
Plasmodium falciparum	rVAR2-DT	Melanoma expressing CS	No data	Experimental research