Growing evidence suggests that certain types of bacteria are capable of causing colorectal cancers, indicating that a sub-set of these cancers could be the result of infectious disease.
But understanding how bacteria interact in the human gut – our microbiome — has been challenging because of the complex microbial mixture of “good” and “bad” bacteria.
Over a decade ago, French scientists discovered a pathway in certain strains of E. coli, a bacterium normally found in 90% of humans, that is “genotoxic” – toxic to DNA – causing tumor formation and colorectal cancer in mice.
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