Can antibiotic use lead to colon cancer?

Can antibiotic use lead to an increased risk of colorectal cancer?  Apparently.

“An increasing total exposure to antibiotics at age 20–39 was significantly associated with a higher risk of colorectal adenoma… Similarly, antibiotic use during age 40–59 was associated with an increased risk of colorectal adenoma… The associations were similar for low-risk versus high-risk adenomas.”

Colorectal adenoma — “is a precursor lesion of the colorectal adenocarcinoma (colon cancer)” — Wikipedia

Quotes below are from http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2017/03/16/gutjnl-2016-313413  (many quotes from the full study)

This study showed that the adenomas and cancer took a number of years to develop as the increased risk of colon cancer in the short term (<4 years) was very low.

Other studies have found similar results, but these studies didn’t follow people for more than a decade (the time needed for cancers to develop).

“A cohort study in Finland found that compared with people with =1 prescription for antibiotics, people who had =6 prescriptions had a 15% increased risk of developing colon cancer during up to 9 years of follow-up.”

The proposed link between antibiotics and colorectal cancer or adenoma?

“The proposed link between exposure to antibiotics and development of colorectal neoplasia is biologically plausible. Antibiotics shift the gut microbiota to temporally quasi-stable or alternative stable states… The interactions of these dysbiotic microbiota with mucosal immune and epithelial cells may be critical in the initiation and/or promotion of colorectal carcinogenesis.”

The following study looked at antibiotic use of over 4,000 men in the Netherlands who had colorectal cancer (CRC) and compared them to over 15,000 controls.

An increasing use of antibiotics was associated with an increasing risk of CRC [multivariable OR for high (≥8 prescriptions) vs. no prescriptions: 1.26.  CONCLUSION:
We found an association between the use of antibiotics, especially when used frequently, and the risk of developing CRC. Further studies are needed to establish under which conditions the use of antibiotics increases the risk of developing CRC. — PubMed ID#26289256 (2016)

In the following study from Taiwan they looked at over 5,500 colorectal cancer patients and compared them to over 22,000 controls.

“Antianaerobic antibiotics also increased the risks for those with nonintra-abdominal infection. No association was found between antiaerobic agent use and the CRC risk. The results suggest intra-abdominal infections and antianaerobic antibiotic use may be a marker for precancerous lesions or early CRC, although the possibility of antianaerobic antibiotics playing an additional role cannot be excluded.” — PubMed ID#24470385  (2014)

So what can you do to help mitigate the risks of antibiotic associated colon cancer? Rebuild and support your microbiome! Chances are pretty good that it wasn’t the antibiotics that caused the cancer, it was the disruption to the microbiome. How do they know this? The antibiotics did not cause cell mutations or cancer in vitro (in the test tube).

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