Canadian researchers have identified gut bacteria that play a role in tissue inflammation. They are now trying to modify the composition of the microbiota in order to avoid complications following colon surgery and reduce the risk of recurrence.
This article is taken from the monthly Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche n°913, dated March 2023.
At the Hospital Center of the University of Montreal (CHUM), in Canada, scientists will soon modify the intestinal flora of a patient suffering from cancer, here that of the colon, in the days which precede his surgery. Their objective is twofold: to reduce postoperative complications in the short term, and, in the longer term, to limit recurrences.
Oncomicrobiotics is the original field of research of a trio of researchers who have just been the subject, in December 2022, of a publication in the journal Gut. A first. The two surgeons, Pr Carole Richard and Dr Roy Hajjar, in collaboration with an immunologist, Professor Manuela Santos, are determined to find the ideal composition of such supplementation. With the hope of offering it to patients at high risk of complications before colon cancer surgery.
We now know that certain imbalances in the intestinal microbiota – which contains more than 100 billion non-pathogenic microorganisms -, in conjunction with many other factors (genetic, food, environmental, etc.), play a decisive role in the development of colorectal cancers. We also know that colon cancer surgery sometimes requires a surgical diversion leading to temporary connection of the colon to a pocket placed at the level of the skin (ostomy or artificial anus), before restoring the continuity of the intestine, carried out at the time of of a subsequent intervention. Gold, “following this type of intervention, intestinal leaks occur in regarding 30% of cases (at the level of the surgical suture, editor’s note)”, specifies Carole Richard, head of the digestive surgery department at the CHUM.
The bacterial profile is linked to the risk of complications
“A careful review of the literature gave us the idea of making a link with the microbiota and creating a bio-bank of[…]
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