A Common Infection May Cause Cancer

A new study suggests that Clostridioides difficile is responsible for certain colorectal cancers.

According to data gathered by scientists at the Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the bacterial species Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff, which is well known for causing serious diarrheal infections, may also cause colorectal cancer.

The research, which was recently published in the journal Cancer Discovery, may reveal another problematic role for this microbe, which causes over 500,000 infections annually in the United States, many of which are very challenging to treat.

“The uptick of individuals under age 50 being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in recent years has been shocking. 

We found that this bacterium appears to be a very unexpected contributor to colon malignancy, the process by which normal cells become cancer,” says Cynthia Sears, M.D., Bloomberg~Kimmel Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy and professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Researchers in the Sears Lab reported several years ago that more than half of colorectal cancer patients had bacterial biofilms — dense colonies of bacteria on the colon surface — while only 10% to 15% of healthy people without tumors had biofilms. 

However, one sample stood out to the researchers when they infected mice with biofilm samples originating from specific colorectal cancer patients because it significantly raised colorectal tumors in the mice. This slurry caused tumors in 85% of the mice, while in most controls, tumor development is less than 5%.  READ MORE...