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Cancer cells metastasize with bacteria
Kirill Stasevich, "Science and Life", based on materials MedicalXpress: Study suggests colon cancer cells carry bacteria with them when they metastasize.
It is known that some cancers are often accompanied by bacteria. One of the most famous examples is a tumor of the large intestine, in the tissues of which live Fusobacterium nucleatum, or Plaut sticks, which, in general, are ordinary members of the microflora. There are most of them in colon cancer, although other bacterial genera live here besides them. And such a neighborhood, apparently, is not accidental at all, since the same bacteria can be found in cancer metastases in other organs.
Harvard researchers compared samples of tumors in the intestine and secondary tumors in the liver taken from the same patients. An article in Science (Bullman et al., Analysis of Fusobacterium persistence and antibiotic response in colorectal cancer) states that in most cases, F.nucleatum and related bacteria were found in liver samples, but only if all these bacteria were also in intestinal cancer. If there were no microbes in the intestinal tumor, then the secondary liver tumors that appeared as a result of metastasis were also without bacteria.
Moreover, as it turned out, microbes live among cancer cells for a reason. When samples of human tumors were transplanted to mice, it was those tumors that had bacteria in them that took root best in animals. And if the transplanted tumor was treated with antibiotics against F.nucleatum, the tumor grew more slowly. It can be assumed that metastatic cells specifically take bacteria with them to make it easier for them to settle in a new place, although exactly how bacteria help cancer grow remains to be seen. It is also necessary to find out which bacteria, in addition to F.nucleatum, provide such a service to malignant tumors.
But bacteria do not always act on the side of cancer. For example, not so long ago we wrote that how our microflora helps the immune system to attack cancer cells in full force, however, in order to make the tumor recede, the microbes must be correct.
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