A study recently published in the journal Nature suggests the presence of certain strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in the gut during childhood is linked to a diagnosis of colorectal cancer under the age of 40.
As written on the Everyday Health page although many types of E. coli are not harmful and are even beneficial for the digestive tract, some types produce a toxin called colibactin, which is capable of changing human DNA.
"In our latest study, we were able to show that early colorectal cancer is very different from advanced colorectal cancer," said senior author Ludmil Alexandrov, PhD, professor in the department of bioengineering and the department of cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego.
"We could see very clearly that more than half of all early colorectal cancers had mutations in something called colibactin.