These microbes found in tumours promote cancer. What if we just kill them?
Source: www.nationalgeographic.co.uk Author: Sanjay Mishra An unfathonable number of bacteria, live in and on our bodies; most providing some benefits. Now researchers have discovered that some species of bacteria are actually protecting cancer cells. This finding could inspire new strategies to fight cancer.Photograph by illustration by Russell Kightley, Science Photo Library Most bacteria living in the human body help us thrive, but recent studies show that some infiltrate tumours, helping them grow, spread, and become more difficult for the immune system to destroy. The human body contains 100 trillion or so microbial cells, almost as many, if not more, than the number of human cells in the body. Bacteria make up most of this microbiome, living in our gut, on our skin, in the respiratory and urogenital tracts, and in mammary glands. A number of recent studies have revealed that bacteria are also present in a wide variety of tumours, where they live not only between cells but even inside them. The bacteria were thought to be taking advantage of a favourable growing environment; scientists had no idea whether these microbes could alter cancer prognosis. Now a study published recently in Nature shows that bacteria in oral and colorectal tumors can directly promote cancer by suppressing the human immune response and helping cancer cells spread more rapidly. An accompanying study published in the journal Cell Reports finds that some anticancer drugs, such as 5-fluorouracil, may be effective because they also kill the bacteria which help the tumour develop. [...]