One Cancer Is Rising Rapidly in Younger People, And Bacteria Could Be Why
Colibactin has already been linked to this cancer type, but the relationship hasn't been specifically studied in people under the age of 50 before. It may go some way to explaining why bowel (or colorectal) cancer is on course to be the leading cancer-related cause of death in young adults in the next few years.
Analyzing cancer tissue samples from 981 individuals across 11 countries, an international team of researchers looked for cancer-causing mutations in the DNA genome. In more than half of the early-onset cases, these mutations matched up with damage caused by colibactin.
"These mutation patterns are a kind of historical record in the genome, and they point to early-life exposure to colibactin as a driving force behind early-onset disease," says computational biologist Ludmil Alexandrov of the University of California San Diego.
So how is this exposure happening? The researchers aren't sure, but we do know that colibactin is produced by certain strains of Escherichia coli in the gut, and the data suggests that the damaging exposure probably happens in the first 10 years of life.
One of the more likely scenarios is that childhood infections are producing colibactin, which then damages DNA in the bowel. These harmful mutations then make cancer more likely later on, typically long after the colibactin has disappeared.
Specifically, colibactin-related DNA mutations were 3.3 times more common in adults diagnosed under the age 40, compared to those diagnosed at age 70 or above. For cancer in older people, the DNA patterns were more often associated with normal aging.
"If someone acquires one of these driver mutations by the time they're 10 years old, they could be decades ahead of schedule for developing colorectal cancer, getting it at age 40 instead of 60," says Alexandrov.
Previous research has identified several associations that could be contributing to the rise in colorectal cancer at a relatively young age. Studies have pointed to ultra-processed food, and too many sugary or alcoholic beverages, for example.
Here, the suggestion is that lifestyle or environmental factors very early on in life may also be planting seeds of the disease. Further research is needed to know for sure, though with recent science funding cutbacks in the US, that research is by no means guaranteed.
The researchers also want to take a closer look at how colibactin and its related DNA scars could be protected against, as well as how the different factors affecting this kind of cancer risk may vary between countries.
"It's possible that different countries have different unknown causes," says computational biologist Marcos Díaz-Gay of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center. "That could open up the potential for targeted, region-specific prevention strategies."
The research has been published in Nature.
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Chicago Tribune
5 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
ICE spared him from deportation to Venezuela. He donated a kidney to save his ailing brother in the Chicago area
The minutes dragged into hours on Wednesday night as Jose Gregorio Gonzalez tossed and turned through the night. At 5 a.m. the next day, he was scheduled to donate his kidney to his younger brother, Alfredo Pacheco, who was also restless. By 2 a.m. the two couldn't stay in bed any longer and began to get ready for a day that they thought would never come. ',' Gonzalez said. 'It's a miracle, because all odds were against us.' His mind raced back to the nights he spent locked inside an immigration detention center earlier this year, convinced he would soon be deported, while his younger brother pleaded with ICE officials to let him stay. Gonzalez was Pacheco's only hope to keep living after being diagnosed with terminal renal failure. When doctors told Pacheco he needed a kidney transplant, Pacheco stepped up. ',' Gonzalez said in Spanish. 'I didn't think about it twice.' But in March, just shy of a few weeks to begin the process for the transplant, Gonzalez was suddenly arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside their home in Cicero. Without him, Pacheco's condition would continue to deteriorate, putting him on an endless waiting list to get a transplant due to his immigration status. And doctors warned that time was running out. Gonzalez knew it: If he was deported, his brother would die. On Thursday, the brothers were admitted to the University of Illinois Hospital, where the transplant surgery was successfully performed. Hospital officials confirmed that both Pacheco and Gonzalez were recovering well. After mounting pressure from advocates and elected officials, ICE granted Gonzalez a temporary humanitarian parole so that they could proceed with the transplant, an unexpected move at a time when the agency is ramping up enforcement. Unlike in past administrations, immigration experts say agents today have less discretion over individual cases and are under pressure to meet deportation quotas, leaving little room for compassion. Though Gonzalez must return to Venezuela by March — after he's recovered from surgery — he says he's deeply grateful to the agent who, as he put it, 'touched his heart' and gave him the chance to save his brother's life. ',' Gonzalez said, smiling, his voice quiet and weak. 'Everything is possible if you have faith.' Even through the surgery, Gonzalez wore the ankle monitor that ICE activated when he was released from the Clay County Jail in southwest Indiana. The brothers now face a long and perhaps complicated road to recovery. The two have limited funds from the few hours of work that Pacheco was able to put in after dialysis over the last few months. Gonzalez was still waiting for the work permit that ICE officials promised. They were able to pay for rent and Pacheco's health insurance for a few months thanks to a fundraiser organized by his neighbors in the town of Cicero and a page on a GoFundMe page still open. But the money is running out quickly. Pacheco said he is worried the two won't be able to rest or take care of themselves properly after the surgery, potentially offsetting the success of the organ transplant and putting their lives on line once again. 'I have to be honest, we were so focused on making sure that I could get the transplant that we didn't consider much of the rest,' Pacheco said. 'We only have each other and cousins here. The rest of our family is in Venezuela.' Their cousin Cristalyn Gonzalez, 38, said her husband took some days off work to take care of their two kids so that she can help the brothers while they're at the hospital. 'I want them to feel supported somehow,' she said. 'We never thought that we would go through something like in the country we thought was going to provide us with opportunities to make a better life for us and our children.' Pacheco was the first one of the brothers to make his way in 2022. Like many other Venezuelan migrants, he made the trek to the United States hoping to get asylum from political and socioeconomic turmoil in Venezuela, where he served as part of the military during his youth. By January 2024, Pacheco was suddenly diagnosed with end-stage renal disease not long after arriving in the Chicago area from the southern border. 'My world completely fell apart,' Pacheco said, who at first refused to tell his family back in Venezuela. 'They were counting on me to help out over there.' Gonzalez was already at the southern border when he learned of his younger brother's brother's prognosis. Though agents had denied him entry the first time, he tried to enter again a second time, knowing that he would be his brother's lifeline. That's when Gonzalez was detained for the first time at a Texas facility awaiting deportation, but since there were no deportation flights to Venezuela, he was released to join Pacheco in Chicago under immigration supervision in March 2024. 'That was the first miracle,' Pacheco said. 'I know God was on our side.' Due to the previous order of removal, unlike Pacheco, Gonzalez cannot apply for asylum or any other kind of immigration relief. ICE officials had no comment, citing confidentiality rules. The oldest of six and having lost two younger siblings to accidents over the last few years in Venezuela, Gonzalez felt it was a blessing to be by Pacheco's side even if it was only for a few months to donate his kidney. Until ICE took him once again in March of 2025, just shy of a month of starting the process to donate the kidney — as confirmed by UIC hospital officials — and days before his parole ended. 'It has been a difficult, painful and frustrating experience,' Pacheco said. 'The American Dream doesn't exist. It's a lie. But at least there are good people in Chicago.' Despite his illness and uncertainty, getting dialysis every other day for four hours in the early morning, Pacheco worked delivering packages for Amazon. He used most of the money to pay for rent and food, and the rest, he said, he would send to his wife and children in Venezuela. 'They think everything is going OK here in Chicago, and that one day I will be back healthy and with enough money to start anew,' Pacheco said. Pacheco's children, a girl, 17, and twin boys, 9, still don't know that their father has a terminal illness. They also didn't know that we underwent lifesaving surgery on Thursday morning. They do know however, that their father and their uncle are hoping to return to Venezuela sometime soon, when 'things are much better,' he said. 'I now pray that my body responds well and that I have the strength to undergo the recovery,' Pacheco said. The recovery process is not an easy one, said Hilda Burgos, a longtime community activist who was key to the movement that helped to establish and pass legislation in Illinois in 2014 that expanded access to organ transplants, specifically kidney transplants, and the drugs needed to maintain the transplants, for immigrants with an irregular status in the country. 'Undocumented people, 'illegal people,' as many like to call us, were allowed to donate our organs to save people's lives including us citizen, but if we needed one, we couldn't get one. We couldn't even get in line to get one,' Burgos said. 'These two brothers are a testament to great work that the community has done to advocate for each other. We are not talking about policies here, it is people's lives.' Burgos' passion to advocate for those undocumented people in need of transplants began after her son was initially denied a kidney transplant he needed to continue living when he was 18-year-old in 2009. After mourning pressure, he got the surgery, but it was also then when she became aware of the 'unfair system.' Shortly after, she joined a delegation of faith leaders and medical leaders representing a group of ailing people in need of lifesaving transplants in Chicago. The group, led by the late Rev. Jose Landaverde performed hunger strikes outside the city's major hospitals, marched from Little Village to UIC and then to Northwestern. And they even conducted a funeral march for one woman who had died after not receiving a liver transplant. 'The fight for transplants was not an easy one,' Landaverde told the Tribune in 2014. While the 2014 law represented a significant step, its initial impact was limited due to several factors. In response, the Illinois Transplant Fund, a nonprofit organization, was established in 2015 to provide financial assistance, primarily covering health insurance premiums for eligible individuals, including undocumented immigrants, needing transplants and their aftercare. Over the last 10 years, ITF has supported hundreds of patients through the transplant process, including Pacheco. 'Senate Bill 741 was a simple, compassionate measure that has saved the lives of those many of us may never meet,' said Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, 'It's in situations like Alfredo's and Jose's that we see the urgent need for our fiscal, health and education policy to not single out, but bring in, our neighbors without permanent legal status and those on society's margins.' Hernandez was one of the many elected officials leaders who rallied in support of the Venezuelan brothers, with more than 1,700 other people signing a petition requesting that ICE release Gonzalez. Most recently, in 2021, Illinois passed a new bill directing the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to cover post-transplant care for noncitizen kidney transplant recipients. A spokesperson for HFS said that despite the most recent changes, including the dismantling of coverage for noncitizen adults 42 to 65 years old, 'noncitizens who are not eligible for comprehensive medical benefits who have End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) may be eligible for certain dialysis, kidney transplantation, and post kidney transplantation services.' Immigration advocates say the brothers' case underscores the human cost of detention policies and the importance of considering humanitarian exceptions. 'We celebrate not just a successful surgery, but the triumph of love and community over fear and cruelty,' said Erendira Rendón, vice president of immigrant justice at the Resurrection Project, which provided Gonzalez with legal and community support for his release. 'The fact that this feels like such an incredible victory speaks to how cruel our immigration system has become. Across the country, families are being torn apart as parents, caregivers, coaches and partners are detained indiscriminately and jailed indefinitely in overcrowded facilities that put their mental and physical health at risk.' As the Venezuelan brothers recover side by side in a small hospital room, the physical pain is a reminder that their journey is far from over. Though the transplant was a hard-won victory, their lives remain defined by uncertainty, limited resources, fragile immigration status and the looming deadline for Gonzalez's return to Venezuela in March. And yet, for the first time in months, they can finally rest. ',' Pacheco said. 'We leave our life in God's hands.' Their pain, once rooted in fear and desperation, is now part of a story of survival made possible not by policy, they said, but by people. A community of strangers in the Chicago area rallied around them, Pacheco said, offering the kind of support they never expected to find in a foreign country.
UPI
10 hours ago
- UPI
Watch: 'Astonishing' video shows human embryo implanting in real time
1 of 4 | A human embryo is shown implanting itself inside a simulated uterine wall in an image taken from the first real-time video of the process ever recorded. Spanish researchers say they hope their video will lead to a deeper understanding of infertility. Photo courtesy Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A team of Spanish researchers announced Friday they have for the first time recorded video of a human embryo implanting itself in a simulated uterine wall, revealing never-before-seen details of how 5-day-old embryos carry out the mysterious process. Using advanced microscopy techniques allowing the scientists to record the human embryo in full color and 3D, the "astonishing" videos provide the first-ever, real-time glimpse of the implantation process and have provided key insights into how it actually works, they said. Researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and Dexeus University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, said the videos reveal for the first time that embryos exert "considerable force" and employ digging traction as they "invade" the uterine tissue, becoming completely integrated with it. The findings, published in journal Science Advances, found crucial differences between how mouse and human embryos move in connecting to the uterus wall, the authors said. An "ex vivo" platform they developed using an artificial uterine matrix made of gel and collagen which allows for implantation outside of a human uterus made the videos possible. The system could have a "significant impact" on efforts to counter infertility and help those who are unable to conceive naturally, they predicted. Failure of the implantation process is the main reason behind the relatively low effectiveness of assisted reproductive technologies, such as in-vitro fertilization, in which embryos are conceived in a lab and then transferred to the womb. Implantation occurs in only 25% to 30% of transferred embryos -- whether conceived in vivo or in-vitro -- with embryo quality cited as the most significant feature affecting implantation. "We've opened a window into a stage of development that was previously hidden," the co-authors said in a statement to UPI. "After Day 5, when an embryo has 100 to 200 cells, it must implant, but until now, doctors couldn't observe it again until an ultrasound weeks later. "With our system, we can test culture conditions or compounds that might improve implantation." For example, the scientists say they have already developed a protein supplement that can be used in clinics to enhance implantation rates, available through their spin-off company Serabiotics and in collaboration with the Spanish pharmaceutical major Grifols. "In short, this is a new tool for extending embryo observation and optimizing conditions for success," they said. The videos show a donated human embryo powerfully pulling on the uterine matrix and reshaping it as it goes, illustrating the importance of "optimal matrix displacement." Lead author Samuel Ojosnegros, principal investigator of IBEC's Bioengineering for Reproductive Health Group, said the initial real-time look at a human embryo implanting itself was a profound experience for him. "We had some experience making time-lapse movies of mouse embryos, but the first time we saw a human embryo implanting was truly astonishing," he said. "Everything was different, the size, the shape, the behavior. They were stronger, more forceful, digging a hole into the matrix in a remarkably invasive way. Every detail felt unique. "Watching it alive, in action, for the first time was absolutely mind-blowing." Embryo implantation is the "holy grail" of reproduction -- and unlike in the animal world, in humans it can be a problematic process, resulting in about 1 in 6 people around the world having trouble making a baby, noted Dr. Mark Trolice, a professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and founder/director of The IVF Center, a full-service reproductive medicine clinic in Orlando. "Even though scientists have studied this for many years, they still do not fully understand how implantation works or what makes the uterus ready for an embryo," he told UPI. "One big mystery is why a woman's body can grow a baby made from sperm -- which is a 'foreign' tissue -- without rejecting it, as well as the ability to carry a donated egg." The new study, he said, "gives researchers a closer look at implantation. They used an ex vivo model, which means they studied the process outside the body. This let them watch how embryos interact with the uterine lining (called the endometrium) and measure the tiny pulling and pushing forces from both mouse embryos and donated human embryos." The videos showed for the first time that each species makes its own unique pattern of forces during implantation. Trolice noted that while there are "some limits" to the Spanish study, "this work could lead to new ways of adjusting the uterine environment, which might help more embryos successfully implant. "Before any treatment can be used, scientists will need to do human clinical trials. There are also important ethical and legal rules about using human tissues and embryos, which researchers must follow," he added.
Newsweek
2 days ago
- Newsweek
Cheese Recall Over 'Rodent Activity' Sparks Diarrhea Warning
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A cheese has been recalled due to "rodent activity," with food inspectors urgently warning customers to dispose of the product to prevent risk of illnesses. Quesito El Establo of Salem, New Hampshire, on Tuesday announced the recall of its Spanish Cheese (Quesito Colombiano) manufactured in its facility and sold in Hispanic/Latino retail stores in Massachusetts. The recall affects about 2,100 items, the company told Newsweek. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) monitors observed "the presence of rodent, rodent activity, and other insanitary conditions during the manufacturing and storage process" during an inspection earlier that day, the company said. Why It Matters The FDA said the presence of rodent activity and other insanitary conditions during manufacturing and storage may have allowed contamination by salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections. The FDA recall notice listed vulnerable groups at greater risk—infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems—and described symptoms including fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. What To Know The company paused production while the agency and the firm investigated. Quesito El Establo told Newsweek via email on Wednesday the company was looking for a new site and hoped to move within three months, subject to regulatory approvals. A spokesperson said the issues raised may have been caused by "seasonal climate conditions and increased pest activity in the surrounding area," and that it had carried out deep cleaning, enhanced pest control measures, upgraded facilities, updated paperwork protocols, and retrained employees. The affected product was described as plastic-wrapped cheese placed in Ziploc bags of approximately 1 pound, featuring a blue sticker with a cow image and the words "Quesito Colombiano" in yellow. The FDA said products with the expiration code "AUG 22 2025" or earlier were included in the recall. The label attached to the packaging of the Spanish Cheese (Quesito Colombiano) being recalled. The label attached to the packaging of the Spanish Cheese (Quesito Colombiano) being recalled. Quesito El Establo/FDA The agency said that no illnesses had been reported to date. Consumers with concerns about possible salmonella symptoms have been advised to seek medical attention, especially if they belonged to high-risk groups. Consumers were advised not to consume the recalled product and to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. For questions, the company provided a contact number: 617-842-0513, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. What People Are Saying An Quesito El Establo spokesperson told Newsweek via email on Wednesday: "Following the FDA inspection, observations included the presence of rodents and other unsanitary conditions in certain production and storage areas. "While no laboratory tests have confirmed contamination and no illnesses have been reported, these findings may have been influenced by external factors such as seasonal climate conditions and increased pest activity in the surrounding area. "As a precaution, production was halted immediately, and we have implemented corrective actions including deep cleaning, enhanced pest control measures, facility upgrades, updated SOPs, and employee retraining to ensure the highest food safety standards moving forward." What Happens Next FDA inspectors are expected to carry out an evaluation of the health hazard. Recalls are classified into three categories to indicate the relative degree of risk. They are:
