Colon Cancer is Associated with Microbial Dysbiosis in Humans and Animals

In Western countries there is a growing incidence in obesity, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer (CRC), which places an increasingly important burden on the health care system. In the current decade, changes in intestinal microflora (i.e., dysbiosis) are likely the result of environment factors such as food, lifestyle, and medications which have been shown in obesity and IBD. In CRC, with the exception of germline DNA mutations which have been attributed to less than 5% of patients, little is still known about the main causes although the role of food is now suspected to have a major influence in the induction of cancer. Increasing data have shown specific changes in microflora in colon cancer patients'' stools or adherent to the colonic mucosa, for which several mechanisms have been proposed using animal experiments. Thus, microbiota may be considered as a platform of host and environment interactions with which to study CRCs. Through new mechanisms in CRC pathophysiology including bacterial approach, the perspectives of screening, diagnostic and prognostic tests are discussed.