UT Southwestern researchers have shown that precision editing of the bacterial populations in the gut reduces inflammation-associated colorectal cancer in mice.
UT Southwestern researchers have shown that precision editing of the bacterial populations in the gut reduces inflammation-associated colorectal cancer in mice.
The study published this week by the Journal of Experimental Medicine could lay the groundwork for novel cancer prevention strategies for individuals with chronic intestinal inflammation. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects more than 1.6 million people in the United States, about equally divided between those with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, said co-corresponding author Dr. Ezra Burstein, Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology and Chief of UT Southwestern’s Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases.
People living with IBD have a higher risk of developing colon cancer, which can be a source of significant health consequences for these patients, he said. The World Health Organization lists colorectal cancer as the third most-common cancer worldwide and the second highest cause of malignancy-related death.
IBD increases the risk of colorectal cancer by three- to sevenfold. Because of that association, patients with persistent bowel inflammation should get intestinal screening, called colonoscopy, three to 10 times more often than healthy people who have no family history of such cancer: every one to three years vs. every 10, Dr. Burstein said.
Read more at UT Southwestern Medical Center
