“This study adds to our knowledge of links between the gut microbiome and colon cancer, where causation is now established in several animal models and correlations are intriguing in humans (although causation in humans are not yet proven),” Rob Knight, a microbial ecologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who was not involved in the work, told The Scientist in an e-mail.
“There’s a growing body of information that constituents in the microbiota play a role in chronic inflammation and in cancer development,” said Martin Blaser, a professor of internal medicine and microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine, who did not participate in the study. “This study supplies yet another model of the same phenomenon.”