A new study by Harvard Medical School investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital has linked certain types of gut bacteria to the development of precancerous colon polyps. Their results are published in Cell Host & Microbe.
“Researchers have done a lot of work to understand the relationship between the gut microbiome and cancer. But this new study is about understanding the microbiome’s influence on precancerous polyps,” said co-corresponding author Daniel C. Chung, HMS professor of medicine, medical co-director of the Center for Cancer Risk Assessment at Mass General Cancer Center, and a faculty member of the gastroenterology division at Mass General.