This exciting new finding was so impactful that the journal Nature designated it for accelerated article preview in April 2025. Maybe it could turn out to unlock which people are at risk for cancer. \u201cWe could try to find ways to detect this mutation, which is kind of the consequence of the infection,\u201d says Marcos D\u00edaz-Gay, PhD, the first author on the study and now a Junior Group Leader at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center<\/a>. But even better would be actually trying to detect the infection when it\u2019s happening, he says, which the authors think could be during childhood. While colibactin testing exists, ordering it in the clinic is a few steps away. And knowing who to test for this strain of E.coli in the first place, long before they come to a clinic with cancer, could be a huge leap forward. \u201cFrom a research perspective, we would like to understand if there are certain environments, diets, lifestyle, behaviors that might be more related with this colibactin,\u201d says Dr. D\u00edaz-Gay.<\/p>\n What Else Could it Be?<\/p>\n As exciting as these findings are, they\u2019re only a piece of the puzzle, since colibactin exposure was only associated with less than 20 percent of colorectal cancer cases in the study<\/a>. Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH<\/a>, the founder of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is focused on another aspect of the rise. She\u2019s studying the risks of different environmental exposures, similar to how lung cancer screening uses smoking as a risk factor to identify people who should be screened.<\/p>\n Among the possible contributors to young-onset colon cancer are the ideas that it\u2019s driven by the environment outside of you. \u201cWe think that this whole process is very complex, and related to some environmental driver,\u201d said Dr. Ng. \u201cIt does not seem to be any shift in genetics or change in family history or inflammatory bowel disease rates rising.\u201d She cites the birth cohort effect, a phenomenon where a group of people born in the same era, with the same exposures in their early life, have increased rates of disease, as evidence for an environmental change behind the increase. <\/p>\n There\u2019s also a theory that it might have to do with changes in the environment inside of you. Cancer researchers call this the \u201cseed vs. soil\u201d hypothesis, where the cancer cell is the seed and the surrounding cells, including immune cells and other resident cells, are the soil. Ken Lau, PhD<\/a>, a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and Surgery at Vanderbilt University, hypothesizes that the seeds\u2014cells with specific mutations with a small chance of becoming cancer\u2014lie dormant until the soil is fertile. <\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is that all of us probably have abnormal cells, and they lie dormant for long periods of time before they become activated to first create a polyp, then some of these polyps become cancer,\u201d said Dr. Lau. The question researchers are chasing is: \u201cWhat are the factors that shorten this dormant time and allow these abnormal cells to grow, to proliferate?\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n To help answer the question of what makes the soil fertile, and why that\u2019s happening more frequently in young people, researchers are finding ways to better understand normal colon cells in young people. William Grady, MD<\/a>, the Medical Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Prevention Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, is interested in profiling colon cells to understand if young patients\u2019 colons are aging at a more rapid pace than in the past. They might be.<\/p>\n Dr. Grady is looking at epigenetic modifications to figure this out. Epigenetic modification is a process of reversible chemical modifications to the DNA which alter gene expression. What that means: They act like an on-off switch. For example, when a methyl group is added to DNA, that gene will be turned off. These changes can be correlated with biological age through grip strength, lung function, and other tests. So far, Dr. Grady\u2019s team found that in people with early onset colorectal cancer, \u201ctheir epigenetic age is actually even higher than people who have late onset colorectal cancer. It suggests that something’s causing an accelerated biological aging in those younger individuals.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s possible, he thinks, that biological aging is associated with metabolic syndrome\u2014that\u2019s when people have three or more of these symptoms at the same time: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and abdominal obesity. Metabolic syndrome incidence is significantly increasing in people aged 20 to 39. \u201cWe’re wondering if something’s happening that’s also just accelerating the biological age in general, which then would increase the cancer risk,\u201d says Dr. Grady. <\/p>\n What to Do Now<\/p>\n Despite the increase in risk, young-onset colorectal cancer is still relatively rare. People who are experiencing symptoms like blood in their stool, a change in bowel habits, abdominal pain or unexplained weight loss should see a doctor \u2013 and you may need to seek a second opinion if you feel dismissed. \u201cWe know colorectal cancer, when caught early, has a good survival rate, and that\u2019s true even for younger patients,\u201d says Joel Gabre, MD<\/a>, one of the directors of Columbia University\u2019s Early Onset Colorectal Cancer Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n But for young people with no symptoms, Dr. Grady recommends putting your energy into lowering your cancer risk until we know more about whom to test for what. \u201cFocus on the things you can do to live a healthy lifestyle: exercise regularly; maintain a normal body weight; eat a healthy diet, which is mainly avoiding red meat and processed foods and eating more whole foods; and avoid tobacco exposure.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe research that\u2019s needed most is the risk stratification research\u2014who do we screen,\u201d says Dr. Gabre. By getting to the root of who\u2019s at risk, we\u2019ll know whom to screen, and ideally, find people like Runkel faster. In the meantime, don\u2019t ignore new symptoms. It could save your life. <\/p>\n New Tech, New Hope<\/p>\n These technologies are moving science closer to knowing why colon cancer is rising in young people.<\/p>\n Exposomics<\/p>\n To accelerate discovery, scientists are determined to gather as much data as possible about people with young-onset colorectal cancer. One study, the Beyond CRC Project from Dana-Farber<\/a>, will collect samples of blood, stool, and tumor from all new young-onset patients. These will be paired with exposome data: validated diet, lifestyle, and environmental exposure questionnaires. They will also collect data from healthy controls and older colorectal cancer patients to make clear comparisons about what is unique in younger patients. To understand the increase globally, they\u2019re enrolling patients from Spain, Brazil, and around the world. <\/p>\n Spatial transcriptomics<\/p>\n Scientists are using this technology to help build a comprehensive map of what\u2019s happening in the colon. The milieu around tumor cells\u2014called the tumor microenvironment\u2014is made up of many other types of normal, native cells, as well as blood vessels and structural scaffolding. Cancer cells, determined to grow bigger, send signals to these other cells. These shut down opposing immune cells, build new blood vessels, and gain fuel and space so they can keep growing. Spatial transcriptomics shows us where all those players are at a specific time, almost like a freeze-frame instant replay. Tracking the complex interactions of all these components could reveal dynamics that could be game changers. For instance, some tumors have very active immune cells while others don\u2019t. Understanding why some patients have \u201chotter\u201d tumors than others could be a key to improving treatment.<\/p>\n AI<\/p>\n Since the locations of cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment are so important, scientists want to see these interactions in three dimensions. Traditional spatial transcriptomics looks at only one slice of tumor in two dimensions, but Dr. Lau\u2019s research team at Vanderbilt University aims to look at multiple levels of tissue. To splice them together into a three-dimensional reconstruction, the team will use AI. This 3D data will be used in a large study called the Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN)<\/a>. As in other studies, this team is focused on comparing young-onset patients to healthy controls. Another clue in why tumors develop in young patients could be found in pre-cancerous tumors, which they plan to study using the 3D reconstructions. The HTAN hopes to understand how the organization of cells in 3D space could be key to why some patients develop cancer and others don\u2019t. <\/p>\n Metagenomics<\/p>\n This way of studying the microbiome allows researchers to get a read on how the microbiome is different between younger and older patients. In Dr. Gabre\u2019s Columbia lab, they are using metagenomics to study not just one type of microbe, but the whole population at once. Think of this like fishing: instead of just fishing for one type of fish with a specific lure, a net will catch all the fish in an area at once. Similarly, metagenomics will find and identify all the diverse bacteria species at once using sequencing. This will help doctors understand how specific microbes in the colon affect nearby colon cells. As in the case of colibactin, the microbiome could hold important clues about colon health and tumor development.<\/p>\n Kate Cunningham is a writer and an MD-PhD student at Columbia University. Her work has appeared in the Seattle Times and the New York Daily News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Runkel went to his primary care physician with a problem: the 36-year-old engineer was passing blood. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,199860,37188,32280,8760,199865,199859,199858,199863,199868,199864,199866,7716,84,199867,12091,27221,1098,199862,199861,517,199869,43427,772,84108,5853,38006,125074],"class_list":["post-499540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-colibactin","tag-colon-cancer-screening","tag-colonoscopy","tag-columbia-university","tag-dana-farber","tag-early-onset-colon-cancer","tag-early-onset-colorectal-cancer","tag-epigenetic-age","tag-exposomics","tag-folfox","tag-fred-hutchinson-cancer-center","tag-gut-health","tag-health","tag-human-tumor-atlas-network","tag-metabolic-syndrome","tag-metagenomics","tag-microbiome","tag-mutational-signature","tag-pks-e-coli","tag-south-carolina","tag-spatial-transcriptomics","tag-ucsd","tag-united-states","tag-university-of-missouri","tag-vanderbilt-university","tag-young-adults","tag-young-men"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Headshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bc268d58-9c26-4c5c-99d3-4d00aa350f31_1765298192.file.png\" "\\"Headshot")
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