Antibiotics may increase bowel cancer risk

Gut. DOI:10.1136/gutjnl-2016-313413

The body is home to some 100 trillion microbial cells (the microbiota). Indeed, the number of microbial cells on and in the body is about 10 times greater than the number of human cells. A 2010 study published in Nature, for example, estimated that the gastrointestinal tracts of 124 European people harboured between 1000 and 1150 species of bacteria.

Over the years, increasing evidence links changes in gut microbiota with colorectal cancer. Now new research suggests that long-term antibiotic use by adults increases the risk of colorectal adenomas (‘polyps’). Cancer Research UK comments that between 1% and 10% of polyps develop into invasive bowel cancer.