New research indicates a correlation between oral bacteria and colorectal cancer growth.
Tooth decay’s relation to cancer
The study, which was done by a team of researchers from Columbia University, found that about one in three people who develop colorectal cancer have the oral bacteria Fusobacterium nucleatum.
What the researchers found most interesting was that the bacteria, which also causes tooth decay, only seems to interact with cancerous cells, not healthy ones. The good news is, when the scientists blocked the protein Annexin A1, the bacteria didn’t attach to the cancer cells, which prevented them from growing so rapidly.
In another test, the team found a feedback loop in which the colorectal cancer cells make the Annexin A1 protein, and the Annexin A1 attracts the colorectal cancer cells.
When the scientist reviewed a national database of people with colon cancer, they found that those with higher levels of Annexin A1 were more likely to fare worse than those who didn’t have the higher levels of the protein. This link was regardless of the person’s age, gender, cancer stage or cancer grade.
Colorectal Cancer in the U.S.
There are some positives to come out of the research. Now that the scientists know how to block the Annexin A1 protein, they may be able to create new treatments for colorectal cancer and other types of cancer. In addition, they can develop methods to use Annexin A1 as a marker to identify these particularly aggressive forms of cancer.
About 1 in 22 men and 1 in 24 women will receive the news that they have colorectal cancer at some point, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
In 2016, the statistics on cancer showed that although about 1.5 million people had a history of colorectal cancer, some were completely cancer free. According to the ACS, the death rate from colorectal cancer has been dropping for both sexes for several decades.
