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Gut Microbes Combine To Cause Colon Cancer, Study Suggests (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): Two types of bacteria commonly found in the gut work together to fuel the growth of colon tumors, researchers reported on Thursday. Their study, published in the journal Science, describes what may be a hidden cause of colon cancer, the third most common cancer in the United States. The research also adds to growing evidence that gut bacteria modify the body's immune system in unexpected and sometimes deadly ways. The findings suggest that certain preventive strategies may be effective in the future, like looking for the bacteria in the colons of people getting colonoscopies. If the microbes are present, the patients might warrant more frequent screening; eventually people at high risk for colon cancer may be vaccinated against at least one of the bacterial strains.
Two types of bacteria, Bacteroides fragilis and a strain of E. coli, can pierce a mucus shield that lines the colon and normally blocks invaders from entering, the researchers found. Once past the protective layer, the bacteria grow into a long, thin film, covering the intestinal lining with colonies of the microbes. E. coli then releases a toxin that damages DNA of colon cells, while B. fragilis produces another poison that both damages DNA and inflames the cells. Together they enhance the growth of tumors. Not everyone carries the two types of bacteria in their colon. Those who do seem to pick up microbes in childhood, where they simply become part of the diverse mass of bacteria in the intestinal tract -- the so-called microbiome.
Two types of bacteria, Bacteroides fragilis and a strain of E. coli, can pierce a mucus shield that lines the colon and normally blocks invaders from entering, the researchers found. Once past the protective layer, the bacteria grow into a long, thin film, covering the intestinal lining with colonies of the microbes. E. coli then releases a toxin that damages DNA of colon cells, while B. fragilis produces another poison that both damages DNA and inflames the cells. Together they enhance the growth of tumors. Not everyone carries the two types of bacteria in their colon. Those who do seem to pick up microbes in childhood, where they simply become part of the diverse mass of bacteria in the intestinal tract -- the so-called microbiome.
Seriously, it seems like everything we see and do, eat and drink or come into contact is both linked to causing and preventing cancer. Heck, every other week they say that any amount of red wine causes cancer, then the following week, "a glass a day keeps the cancer away". It is likely they have no fucking idea what causes or prevents cancer.
On a side note... those gut critters are super important. Many years ago during my military service, I had gotten a pretty strong bug while in the middle east. To remedy this, the military doc gave me very powerful antibiotics. It did kill the bug, but it also destroyed my digestive system. Also these years later there are many foods, including all dairy products which I am no longer able to eat.
Military docs are the best!
Pretty much this. Most of our advancements in medicine are screwed up by for-profit insurance companies. We all have to appear to be perfect in every way these days even when that perfection is an absolute lie. You can't outright lie to an insurance company, but what you can do is not get tested for things that you know are going to be risks. That way there's no record of it. I'm trying to figure out how this strategy, while rational from a market perspective, actually helps anybody. It's time we figure out that the motivations of a capitalist market are incompatible with the motivations of people seeking to be healthy and doctors seeking to keep them that way.
No, this isn't a socialist post: it's simply a recognition, foreign to way too many, that health care does not obey the fundamental tenets of a free market--the very first of which is that nobody is compelled to buy or sell. There are certain health conditions you damned well are compelled to buy services and products to deal with. Nobody who says they want to fix the system ever seems to want to deal with that. Socialists don't know how to control costs, and capitalists don't want to control costs. Meanwhile, people suffer either way.