Bacterial Therapeutics: Addressing the Affordability Gap in Cancer Therapy

The global cancer care burden is projected to reach $25 trillion by 2050, with the United States experiencing increasing costs from $57 billion to $209 billion. The application of expensive cellular immunotherapies (exceeding $300,000 per treatment) will exacerbate escalating cancer care costs. Bacteria-based immunotherapies are emerging as safe, lower-cost alternatives. Recent synthetic biology and artificial intelligence advances may enable the development of next-generation bacterial therapies with reduced toxicity. These systems can bypass cold chain constraints and be manufactured at <$10/dose, offering more than 30,000-fold cost savings compared to cell therapies. Therefore, as they evolve, bacterial therapies could transform cancer care by improving outcomes and alleviating global healthcare economic pressures.