Scientists may have figured out why young people are receiving colorectal cancer more frequently

A common bacteria in our gut may stimulate more trouble than we know. A study this week found evidence that mutagenic toxins produced by certain strains E. coli Can trigger early stage colorectal cancer.

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego led the study, which was published Wednesday. They found that the link between exposure to toxins, called colon cancer, and colorectal cancer was more likely to occur in young people. The researchers say the findings could help explain why the speed of early colorectal cancer has mysteriously increased in recent years, although more research is needed to confirm a causal relationship.

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer, with approximately 150,000 Americans diagnosed with cancer each year. This is also the second major cause of cancer death, killing about 50,000 Americans each year.

Like many types of cancer, the incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer have been steadily declining over time. However, because the incidence of marriage cancer is increasing, the incidence of middle-aged adults has been increasing, so this decline is not distributed. According to the American Cancer Society, the incidence of colorectal cancer in people under 50 increased by 2.4% between 20121 and 2021.

Scientists are not sure why these cancers are becoming more common among young Americans, although some studies point fingers to processed foods, higher obesity rates and other lifestyle factors. But the new study appears to add another suspect.

Researchers are not specifically looking to uncover the mystery. They are interested in understanding why some parts of the world report higher incidence of colorectal cancer than others. To this end, they analyzed the genetic characteristics of colorectal cancer taken from nearly 1,000 people worldwide. These samples included people with advanced and early stage cancer.

Colon cancer is known to cause mutations in our cells, which may increase the risk of cancer, and past studies have linked it to colorectal cancer. But the researchers were surprised to find that the mutations common in early onset cancers they studied were about three times higher than those in advanced onset cancers. They also found molecular evidence that these colon cancer-related mutations tend to appear early in tumor development, suggesting that they play a crucial role in refueling these cancers.

Coupled with other studies, mutations associated with colon cancer often appear in the first decade of life, the authors believe that the toxin may be the main incitement of early onset of colorectal cancer.

“These mutation patterns are a historical record in the genome, and they point to the driving force behind early life span exposure to early onset diseases,” said senior study author Ludmil Alexandrov.

Researchers point out that colitedin may still be a big chunk of a larger problem. They noted that in more rural areas of the world, mutations associated with Corigenin are rarely found. Therefore, diet or other environmental factors of antibiotics may encourage the growth of Colibactin production E. coli Bacteria in the gut outside the United States, where there may be other exposures that can explain higher cancer rates in different countries.

But the team’s findings do provide a fertile foundation for future research and may even lead to interventions that may slow or reverse the growth of early-stage colorectal cancer. Researchers have hoped to study whether probiotics can eliminate these more harmful E. coli They are trying to develop early detection tests that can screen out mutations associated with colon cancer.

However, all of this work depends on further funding. Researchers quickly noticed that the U.S. government under President Donald Trump has actively gained positive restrictions from the National Institutes of Health in recent months, which could be used as important cancer research as they do.

“If cutting NIH funding would affect our ability to do this work, I think it’s a big blow to cancer research not only in the U.S. but globally,” said Alessandrov. “Our funding enables us to work with cancer researchers around the world to collect and analyze large data sets of patient samples from multiple countries. That scale is what makes such a discovery possible.”