Systematic Review · e0005
Personalized Phage Therapy for Drug-Resistant and Difficult-to-Treat Bacterial Infections: A Systematic Review of Human Clinical Evidence and Narrative Synthesis
A.G. Shamsutdinova, D.S. Menlyakova, B.O. Minbaev, G.B. Ensebaeva. Personalized Phage Therapy for Drug-Resistant and Difficult-to-Treat Bacterial Infections: A Systematic Review of Human Clinical Evidence and Narrative Synthesis. Global Medical Reviews. 2026;1(1):e0005.
Abstract
Background
Personalized bacteriophage therapy selects, adapts, or engineers a phage preparation against a patient clinical isolate. This biological specificity may improve target engagement but complicates standardization and causal inference.
Objective
To evaluate human clinical evidence on personalized or strain-matched phage therapy and distinguish direct personalized evidence from indirect randomized evidence generated with fixed phage preparations.
Methods
The review was structured according to PRISMA 2020. Seven bibliographic and trial sources plus citation searches were assessed through 8 July 2026.
Results
Thirteen reports representing 10 study datasets were included. Personalized series showed repeated clinical and microbiological signals, but effectiveness certainty remained very low.
Conclusions
The most defensible clinical model is adjunctive precision infectious-disease care combining a matched, quality-controlled phage preparation with optimized antibacterial therapy, source control, and longitudinal monitoring.