Colon Cancer-Bacteria - ABC News

A bacterium that causes appendicitis and gum

disease has been detected in colon tumors,
according to new research that suggests it may set
the stage for colorectal cancer, the seconddeadliest malignancy. Only lung cancer kills more
people each year.
If the finding can be validated by larger studies,
fusobacterium might one day be used to prevent
and screen for colorectal cancer, currently
detectable through colonoscopy or tests for the
presence of blood in the stool. fuscobacterium also
might play a role in determining the prognosis of colorectal cancers and shaping their treatment,
according to two research teams independently reporting a relationship between the rod-shaped
microbe and cancers of the lower digestive system.
Fuscobacterium is a known player in disorders characterized by inflammation, such as gum disease
and appendicitis. Scientists have tied some strains to two inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative
colitis and Crohn's disease, both of which elevate the risk of colon cancer. In addition to promoting
inflammation, fuscobacterium has other qualities that make it a formidable foe: it invades tissues
and it's sticky, which helps explain its presence in the dental plaque that clings to tooth enamel.
A Canadian research team found significantly more fuscobacterium RNA (a type of genetic material)
in colon tumors than in healthy tissues from the same people. That surprised the investigators
because fuscobacterium is a rare inhabitant of healthy guts and "has not been previously associated
with cancer," said Robert Holt, a senior scientist with the British Columbia Cancer Agency Genome
Sciences Center and associate professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
A U.S. group compared tissues lining cancerous and healthy regions of patients' colons, looking in
each for stretches of the microbes' DNA (another type of genetic material).They theorized that if
bacteria and viruses were involved in the development of colorectal cancer, the quantity of the
microbes in tumor tissue would differ from the quantity in adjacent healthy tissue. Indeed, looking
first at tissues of nine people, and then 95 more, they found a spike in fuscobacterium species,
especially fuscobacterium nucleatum, fuscobacterium mortiferum and fuscobacterium necrophorum
in diseased tissue.
"Tumors and their surroundings contain complex mixtures of cancer cells, normal cells, and a variety
of microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses," said Dr. Matthew Meyerson, co-director of the
Center for Cancer Genome Discovery at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston and senior author
of the second study. "Over the past decade, there has been an increasing focus on the relationship
between cancer cells and their 'microenvironment,' specifically on the cell-to-cell interactions that
may promote cancer formation and growth."
Both studies will be published online Tuesday in the international journal Genomic Research.

Holt and Meyerson said their findings couldn't discern whether fuscobacterium infection causes
colon cancer, or fuscobacterium infection and inflammation develop because of colon cancer.
Meyerson said additional studies comparing bacteria in the tissues of cancer patients and healthy
people could demonstrate whether there are more fuscobacterium species in the intestines of colon
cancer patients than in the intestines of the general population.
Earlier this year, British researchers published in the International Journal of Case Reports and
Images the case of a 72-year-old man with rectal cancer whose abscessed liver contained
fuscobacterium nucleatum. They called their findings "the first incidence in literature of colonic
cancer in association with fuscobacterium nucleatum."
Several types of cancer have infectious origins. The H. pylori bacterium responsible for stomach
ulcers also produces stomach cancers. Viruses responsible for hepatitis B and hepatitis C also cause
liver cancer. The human papilloma virus causes the vast majority of cervical cancer.
Just last week, UCLA researchers announced they'd found significant differences in the relative
abundance of particular bacterial species in the mouths of pancreatic cancer patients and healthy
people. They said the altered quantities eventually might be the basis of screening tests for
pancreatic cancer. There, too, researchers were unable to tell whether the altered bacteria levels
were a cause or an effect of the cancer.
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