The more ‘this’ in the stool, the better the prognosis for colon cancer… “It increases with vegetarian diet”

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A study has found that the prognosis of colorectal cancer can be determined using the intestinal microbes in feces. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide and has the second highest mortality rate. Therefore, it is important to predict the prognosis in advance.

A joint research team led by Park Ji-won, professor of colorectal surgery at Seoul National University Hospital, Kim Ji-hyun, Yonsei University, systems biology professor, and Dr. Heo Ji-won, analyzed the association between colon cancer and intestinal microbes in 333 patients who underwent colorectal cancer surgery (primary tumor resection). It appeared on the 28th.

The research team collected stool samples from colorectal cancer patients within two weeks before surgery, performed next-generation gene sequencing, and observed the prognosis for regarding three years following surgery. As a result, the higher the amount of ‘prevotella’, a representative intestinal microorganism, the higher the ‘progression-free survival’ (PFS), in which cancer does not progress any further.

Freevotella is a microorganism found mainly in oriental countries where vegetarians eat. The research team explained, “The results of this study can be scientific evidence supporting the positive association between vegetarianism and colorectal cancer prognosis.”

On the other hand, colorectal cancer prognosis worsened when Fuzobacterium, a representative pathogenic microorganism, was present. In addition, the research team found that the production of vitamin B1 by microorganisms can improve the prognosis of colorectal cancer and has a high correlation with the number of apoptotic immune cells in the intestine.

Professor Park Ji-won said, “It is meaningful in that it suggests that gut microbes can also be used to predict the prognosis of colorectal cancer.

The results of this research, supported by the Korea Cancer Research Foundation, the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Yonsei Signature Research Cluster Project, were published in the latest issue of Microbiome, an international journal in the field of microbiological research.

Ji-won Park, professor of colorectal surgery at Seoul National University Hospital, Ji-hyeon Kim, professor of systems biology at Yonsei University, and Ji-won Huh, doctoral candidate (=provided by Seoul National University Hospital)

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