Probiotic: effectiveness nutrition in cancer treatment and prevention.

Abstract

Among the neoplasias, colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death in men and women. The increasing incidence of this typeof cancer is due to the increase in the population's life expectancy, by the increase in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, primarily ulcerativecolitis and Crohn's disease, and the change in eating habits. The American Cancer Society (2011) shows that diet might be responsible forapproximately 30% of cancer cases in developed countries, moreover when considering only colorectal cancer, the number can reach 30% to50%. Probiotics are effective in the prevention and treatment of many bowel diseases as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), diarrhea, irritablebowel syndrome, gluten intolerance, gastroenteritis, Helicobacter pyloriinfection, and colon cancer. Classical examples are strains from theLactobacillus, and Bifidobacteriumgenus that have probiotic proprieties with a potential use in the prophylaxis, as well as in the treatment of avariety of gastrointestinal tract disorders. Researchers are focusing on extremely important studies regarding the possibility of using probiotics topromote a balanced microbiota composition, and a sufficient immunological surveillance system as a way to prevent cancer. Considering the factthat the human intestines host 100 trillion bacteria, including more than 1,000 species, there is still need to perform more in depth investigationsin order to find probiotics with potential to prevent, and treat cancerous diseases, adding a very promising effect to this already successful panorama. This revision aims to conduct a review of the most recent studies correlating probiotics and its cancer preventing and treatment potential.