Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Jun 26: A high intake of dietary fibre may help lower the risk of colorectal cancer by promoting a healthier gut microbiome, according to a new study published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.
The research found that a cancer-associated gut microbiome pattern was linked to lower fibre consumption, while increasing dietary fibre intake was associated with a reduced microbial signature of colorectal cancer.
The international study, led by researchers including scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Germany, analysed data from 27 previously published studies involving 6,779 publicly available gut microbiome sequencing profiles. The team also examined 906 intestinal tissue samples to compare stool-based microbiome signals with microbes found directly in tumour tissue.
Researchers identified a consistent microbial signature associated with colorectal cancer, regardless of geography, age of diagnosis or sequencing methods.
"The strength of this study is its comprehensiveness," said Georg Zeller, visiting team leader at EMBL Heidelberg and professor at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
"We combined stool and tissue comparisons, dietary data, taxonomic analysis down to bacterial strains, and functional analysis of virulence factors," he said.
The study found that cancer-associated microbes were detectable in intestinal tissue even at the early stages of tumour development. However, stool-based detection was less accurate in early-stage cancers and in tumours located higher up in the colon.
According to the researchers, the study represents one of the largest microbiome meta-analyses conducted for a single disease, covering 34 study populations and more than 7,600 biological samples.
The findings also revealed a significant inverse relationship between dietary fibre intake and the colorectal cancer microbiome score in both cancer patients and healthy individuals.
Researchers further observed that interventions aimed at increasing dietary fibre consumption effectively reduced colorectal cancer microbiome scores, suggesting that dietary changes may influence gut microbial communities associated with cancer risk.
The team said the machine-learning approach used in the study can also be applied to existing microbiome datasets to better understand how diet and other lifestyle factors influence disease-related microbial patterns.
The researchers added that the study highlights the value of open scientific data, noting that combining thousands of publicly available microbiome profiles enabled them to identify patterns that would have been difficult to detect through individual studies alone.