Experts believe they may have found a way to reduce the risk of cancer after a study linked higher rates of certain cancers to two types of common bacteria.
The E.coli bacteria can cause urinary tract and bloodstream infections, as well as "severe stomach pain, bloody diarrhea and kidney failure," NHS Inform reported.
The bacteria is normally harmless and lives in the gut of humans and animals, but scientists have studied two strains that produce a DNA-damaging chemical called colibactin, which has been linked to bowel cancer.
It is hoped that targeting a vaccine against these strains could help reduce the risk of bowel, bladder and prostate cancer. For the study, published in Lancet Microbe, researchers used genome-wide surveillance to track different strains in different countries, including the UK, Norway, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
According to Cancer Research, since the early 1990s, prostate cancer cases in 25-49-year-olds have increased by 622%. Meanwhile, colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with a 42% increase in cancer cases in the same age group since the early 1990s.
The two strains the researchers focused on are more common in industrialized countries and cause bloodstream and urinary tract infections rather than food poisoning. According to the researchers, these countries also have higher rates of bowel, bladder and prostate cancers. At the same time, the team's analysis shows that the strains are much rarer in countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, where cases of bowel, bladder and prostate cancers are also lower.
Senior author Professor Jukka Korander from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Oslo and University of Helsinki stated, "This has allowed us to start to see possible links between two strains of E.coli and cancer incidence."
First author Dr Tommy McLean from the University of Helsinki and the Wellcome Sanger Institute added: "E.coli can be found all over the world, in many different forms, and understanding how strains of this bacteria affect people differently can give us a more complete picture of health and disease."
"Having access to global genomic data on strains that are found in a given region can reveal new trends and opportunities, such as strains in industrialized countries that may be linked to the risk of certain cancers. We also need to continue to ensure that countries and regions around the world are included in genome-wide surveillance research so that everyone benefits from new findings," said Maclean. | BGNES
