Monitoring intestinal microbiota profile: a promising method for the ultraearly detection of colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers and is very hard to be detected at an ultraearly stage because of lack of valuable predicating methods that often lead to treatment failure. Intestinal microbiota has long been considered to implicate in colorectal cancer pathology; and many recent reports point out a close linkage between the intestinal bacteria and the genesis of the tumor. Present studies indicate that the structure and characteristics of the intestinal microbiota are significantly altered in colorectal cancer, precancerous lesion, and high risk population compared with healthy controls and low risk population. Based on the current studies and theories, we postulate monitoring the intestinal bacterial profile by the molecular methods that could fulfill the ultraearly prediction about the degree of the risk developing into colorectal cancer. Further population-based epidemiological study is useful to reveal the characteristics of the intestinal microbiota in ultraearly colorectal cancer, which might provide some novel prophylactic and therapeutic strategies for the colorectal cancer.