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Microbiome’s Role in Colon Cancer?
What is the microbiome’s role in colon cancer? FYI, the article below was written about GI cancers as a whole. I have taken the liberty of focusing this post on colon cancer specifically.
I am a long-term survivor of a blood cancer called multiple myeloma. I am working with a newly diagnosed colon cancer patient named Bernie Davis.
It is remarkable to me to find so many concepts and therapies that are common to both MM and colon cancer. The gut microbiome health, diversity, etc. is one of those overlapping therapies.
Though conventional oncology is at the beginning of understanding how the cancer patient’s gut microbiome can affect their cancer, it is clear to me that the patient’s gut microbiome can affect their:
- diagnosis,
- treatment,
- side effects
- and overall cancer survival.
Studying the microbiome could be the next frontier in colon cancer research
Do you have colon cancer? What stage? What therapies have you undergone? Scroll down the page, post a question or comment, and I will reply to you ASAP.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Unlocking the Microbiome’s Role in Colon Cancer
“From the stomach to the colon, manipulating the gut microbiome may hold the key to prevention, diagnosis, and even treatment of colorectal cancer and other GI malignancies, but only if science, medicine, and technology evolve together…
Diet, Drugs, and the Disrupted Ecosystem
In a separate lecture, Gianluca Ianiro, MD, associate professor of gastroenterology at the Catholic University of Rome, Rome, Italy, noted that the microbiome’s composition is shaped by both genes and the environment, but environmental factors have a much larger influence — meaning it can be modified “for bad and for good.”
Ianiro described modern Western lifestyles as “a disaster for the microbiome,” noting that dietary habits, antibiotic exposure, and sedentary behaviors have collectively eroded microbial diversity — a hallmark of gut health.
“This loss of alpha diversity is seen across virtually all chronic disorders — and cancer is no exception,” Ianiro said. Environmental risk factors linked to colorectal cancer, including smoking, alcohol, aging, and poor diet, all share the common denominator of disrupting microbial balance, he said.
Kupcinskas noted that medications such as proton pump inhibitors and antibiotics can dramatically alter the stomach’s microbial landscape, which may induce “strong inflammation and, in the long run, cancer.”
Ianiro echoed similar concerns for the lower GI tract, highlighting how diets rich in choline and processed fats can drive production of colibactin — a bacterial toxin that can alter DNA and increase the risk for colorectal cancer.
Together, emerging data reinforce that microbial imbalance — or dysbiosis — may be a shared carcinogenic mechanism throughout the GI system, Ianiro said.
Diagnostics and Therapeutic Breakthroughs
The promise of microbiome-driven diagnostics and therapies for GI cancer is growing.
Ianiro noted that stool-based biomarkers are now recommended in colorectal cancer screening guidelines, with various options such as fecal immunochemical test and multi-target stool DNA tests now standard. These tests can detect microbial “signatures” associated with colorectal cancer, offering noninvasive alternatives to colonoscopy for some patients, Ianiro said.
Kupcinskas’ group is developing artificial intelligence-assisted diagnostic tools that combine microbiome, genomic, and imaging data to identify precancerous gastric lesions through the European Union’s Horizon Europe Artificially Intelligent Diagnostic Assistant project.
Therapeutically, Ianiro highlighted the potential of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT).
Once confined to treating Clostridium difficile infections, early research suggests that FMT can enhance immunotherapy outcomes and mitigate its side effects.
Ianiro cited clinical trials in which FMT alleviated immune-related colitis — a common complication of immune checkpoint inhibitors — and even extended progression-free survival in patients with renal cell carcinoma receiving combined chemo-immunotherapy.
He also pointed to another advance — the TopoScore — a microbial panel developed by researchers at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Institute in Villejuif, France, that predicts a patient’s response to cancer immunotherapy on the ecological topology of their gut microbiome.
Kupcinskas noted similar microbial links to immunotherapy response. In one study from France, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii was associated with a better response to immune checkpoint inhibition in patients with gastric cancer. There have been similar successes in melanoma, where fecal transplants from responders resensitized nonresponders to immunotherapy, he noted…”