Transformation of colitis and colorectal cancer: a tale of gut microbiota

Abstract

Intestinal inflammation modifies host physiology to promote the occurrence of colorectal cancer (CRC), as seen in colitis-associated CRC. Gut microbiota is crucial in cancer progression, primarily by inducing intestinal chronic inflammatory microenvironment, leading to DNA damage, chromosomal mutation, and alterations in specific metabolite production. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in microbiota-based prevention and treatment strategies, such as probiotics, prebiotics, microbiota-derived metabolites, and fecal microbiota transplantation. This review aims to provide valuable insights into the potential correlations between gut microbiota and colitis-associated CRC, as well as the promising microbiota-based strategies for colitis-associated CRC.

Keywords:

• Colitis
• colitis-associated colorectal cancer
• gut microbiota
• prevention
• therapy

Acknowledgements

We thank the medical teams of Diagnostic and Treatment Center for Refractory Diseases of Abdomen Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, for their support for this subject. Moreover, we thank Home for Researchers editorial team (www.home-forresearchers.com) for language editing service.

Authors’ contributions

KX conceived the study, reviewed the literature, and drafted the manuscript. RG, LL, XW and TW assisted in drafting the manuscript. YR, LY and CC revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.