Identifying the deadly link between oral bacteria and cancer

Scientists from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (USA) examined tumors in 200 bowel cancer patients and discovered that in 50% of these cases, a subgroup of the bacteria Fusobacterium nucleatum was elevated in tumor tissue.

Fusobacterium nucleatum bacteria makes bowel cancer more dangerous - (Graphic photo: MICROBIOME POST).

According to SciTech Daily, Fusobacterium nucleatum is a group of bacteria found in the human mouth. Previously, they were thought to be a single subspecies, but new discoveries show that they consist of two separate branches.

One of those branches was Fna C2 , which migrated to tumors inside the intestines of cancer patients. The presence of this bacterial branch not only promotes bowel cancer to progress more aggressively, but also makes treatment less effective. Patients with this bacteria have a lower chance of surviving cancer and have a worse prognosis than other patients.

This new finding suggests new treatments and screening approaches targeting this bacterial subgroup as well as the gut microbiome in general.

Medical scientists can take advantage of bacteria's impact on cancer to develop therapies based on bacterial cells themselves, for example creating modified versions of introduced bacteria. body to affect the tumor.

This new work is very valuable in the context of bowel cancer being very common and one of the most "killer" forms of cancer .

According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), bowel cancer - also known as colorectal cancer - is the form of cancer with the third highest number of cases in the world, but the number of deaths ranks second. Monday.