A Clarification about Fecal Microbiota Transplantation

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We emphatically agree with Lee Jones’ perspective in the essay “We’re Starting to Harness the Microbiome to Treat Disease” that regulated oversight of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is vital for appropriate safety and stewardship of this investigational treatment.

However, the author failed to mention that FMT is now recommended by infectious disease and gastroenterology societies as the standard of care for recurrent C. difficile infection that has failed antibiotic therapy. Indeed, in their most recent guidelines, the British Society of Gastroenterology recommends that “where possible, FMT is best sourced from a centralized stool bank, from a healthy unrelated donor.”