Fecal Transplants from people with Colorectal Cancer change the microbiome of the recipient for the worse; what if people with CRC were given Fecal Transplants from Healthy donors?
It is now well established that certain life style factors (such as a high fat diet), and an imbalanced gut microbiome, lie behind Colorectal Cancer (CRC), the 4 th most common morbidity Worldwide.
In 2019, Li and fellow researchers showed (1) that taking a fecal transplant from someone with colorectal cancer promoted the disease in mice when given the stool sample.
Certain gut bacteria can digest food residues that your own enzymes cannot. We know that some gut bacteria then make compounds such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) including butyrate that suppresses inflammation and carcinogenesis.
We also know that the microbiome of a mouse after a fecal transplant of a stool sample with CRC has less of the Roseburia and Clostridium families (reducing sugar metabolism and butyrate production); while it has more of the pathogens such as Fusobacterium, Akkermansia and Ruminococcus. The mice had greater inflammation and a destruction of the gut mucosal membrane as a result. They also had gut bacteria that could activate the Wnt cancer signalling pathway. Not surprisingly, consumption of high levels of soluble dietary fibre can protect against CRC carcinogenesis (2). It is well established that commensal (‘good’) bacteria levels are enhanced with these foods, as is the immune system, and the production of butyrate.
The researchers are now looking to isolate the bacterial components promoting CRC to see how they can best nullify them. Another possible line of research is to study whether using a Fecal Transplant of a healthy person’s microbiome would be of benefit.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and author of Heal your Gut – Heal your Body, said, “The researchers talked about how surgery and masses of drugs might only make matters worse in CRC. So what if oncologists did the opposite and, before any orthodox treatment, gave the patient a Fecal Transplant from a healthy donor to re-balance the microbiome, re-establish levels of butyrate and reduce inflammation and oncogenesis?
In talking to Dr. Julian Kenyon of the Dove Clinic prior to my Sunday Show on healing the gut, he thinks it is perfectly sensible. The real issue is what has someone with CRC to lose? A Fecal Transplant can ‘take’ in the gut within a matter of days, and would seem a far more sensible option that using antibiotics on the patient. We shall see what the next developments from research hold.”
Go to: Everything you need to know about beating Colorectal Cancer
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References
- https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(19)30625-5/fulltext
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25266735/