Bacteria found in colon cancer tumors - antibiotics?

[radnyc]

This is something that I read about years ago, a bacteria commonly found in our mouths, is found in a lot of colon cancer tumors. When treated with common, and cheap, antibiotics the tumors are slowed down considerable, in mice experiments.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/heal ... egion&_r=0

“It is not unreasonable to say Fusobacterium is promoting or contributing to colon cancer,” he said."

by the way Listerine kills this bacterium

[Pemba]

That’s pretty interesting because I just read multiple articles about a experiment that indicate teens and young people that used antibiotics over a 14 days period had a more significant growth of polys by a young age than others.. of cause only 10-20% Adeomas end up cancerous so both articles can hold truth.

[radnyc]

Antibiotics in young people have been controversial. Seems they might be more effective in adults after our immune systems have fully developed.

[juliej]

I suspect the answer might lie with the gut microbiome -- not antibiotics. We now know that alterations to the microbiome caused by environmental changes (e.g., infection, diet and/or lifestyle) can disturb gut microbiota and allow pro-carcinogenic bacteria to flourish. Bacterial species suspected to play a role in CRC include Streptococcus bovis, Helicobacter pylori, Bacteroides fragilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Clostridium septicum, Fusobacterium (the one mentioned in the article), and Escherichia coli.

There was a study published a few weeks ago showing that people who responded to immunotherapy had more diversity in their gut microbiome and had a greater number of killer-T cells than non-responders. The researchers concluded that patients who had the most diverse gut microbes were most likely to respond to immunotherapy.

I have a feeling the microbiome is a missing piece of the cancer puzzle. If we can change the gut microbiome to enhance responses to immunotherapy, then it's conceivable it can be used to prevent cancer altogether.

Thanks for the interesting discussion, radnyc!

[GrouseMan]

Yes - I have to agree with Juliej on this one. Antibiotic use really messes with our colon's mix of bacteria. They have shown several links to
different mixes of bacteria promoting vs suppressing colon cancers in small animal studies. So as youngsters its not a stretch that since their microbiomes may be shifted to a promotor mix its possible they would develop colon cancers earlier. But this is all very new and controversial, and frankly I don't know how easy it would be to take advantage of this in treatment.

Also the observation that some antibiotics slow down tumor growth in some studies in no surprise. The name of my department was anti-invective's when I originally started in Anti cancer drug discovery some early anticancer drugs came from research into antibiotics, derived from bacteria. Some chemical structural motifs are similar between some classes of antibacterials and anti cancer drugs.

Also remember that out bodies are heavily invaded by bacteria of all kinds - much of it beneficial. Its probably not a stretch that some bacteria find the tumor environment more inviting a place and thrive. That's why some experiments early on using what was called Coley's Toxins had some but limited success. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coley%27s_toxins

Regards,

GrouseMan

[Pemba]

Do any of you now if there are done any proper studies on the effect of probiotics and lactobacillus supplements?

I’ve started taking them after my polyp removal, my friend who works with medicine told me it’s money out of the window unless I have food poisoning. He is probably right

[radnyc]

The bacterium in question, Fusobacterium Nucleatum, is found in the dental plaque of humans and is frequently associated with gum disease, IBD and shows up in lots of colorectal tumors. So, as far as being one of the millions of bacteria that inhabit us, it’s a bad one. Not all that lives in our guts is beneficial, there are many troublesome squatters. Seems green and black teas zaps the critters:

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep44815

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusobacterium_nucleatum