A new study has found that infection from E. Coli, a common type of gut bacterium, may increase a person's chance of developing bowel cancer.
The study, published in the journal Nature, discovered that the bacterium, a type of E. coli infection, can increase the likelihood of developing bowel cancer. The scientists have not identified how they might be linked to the E. coli strain that makes the toxin colibactin.
The researchers say that the bacterium, which is present in up to one in five people, releases a toxin can damage the cells that line the bowel, potentially turning some cells cancerous over time.
In the UK, there are approximately 42,000 new cases of bowel cancer annually. The researchers suspect that the E. coli gut infection may contribute to a minority of bowel cancer cases, about one in 20 or five in every 100.
In the study, the scientists from The Netherlands, the UK and the US, used a lab-grown miniature replicas of the human gut, to examine the effects of the toxin on cells. They then compared the damage seen with more than 5,000 bowel cancer samples taken from patients.
They discovered identical patterns or "fingerprints" of DNA damage in around 5% of the samples.
Professor Hans Clevers from the Hubrecht Institute in The Netherlands, said: "Common antibiotics will kill these bacteria. This is the first time we've seen such a distinctive pattern of DNA damage in bowel cancer, which has been caused by a bacterium that lives in our gut."
Meanwhile, Nicola Smith, senior health information Manager at Cancer Research UK, pointed out: "Although it might sound scary, there's still lots left to understand about our how our gut bacteria affect our health, what we could do about it, and how much impact it has on bowel cancer risk."
"In the future, knowing what role bacteria in our gut plays could change the way we detect and prevent bowel cancer," Smith added.
She continued: "But we do know that around half of bowel cancer cases can be prevented by not smoking, keeping a healthy weight and eating a balanced diet - so there's plenty of changes that you can make right now that will reduce your risk."
