Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancerous diseases worldwide and causes leading cancer-associated deaths. Several factors are related to the incidence of CRC such as unhealthy diet and lifestyle, heredity, metabolic disorders, and genetic factors. Even though several advanced medical procedures are available for CRC treatment, the survival rates are poor with many adverse treatments associated side effects, which affects the quality of life. Probiotics are a well-known bioactive candidate for the treatment of several diseases and ill-health conditions. The recent scientific evidence suggested that probiotic supplementation protects the CRC patients from treatment-associated adverse effects. The manuscript summarizes the influence of probiotic supplementation on the health status of CRC patients and discusses the possible mechanism behind the protective effect of probiotics against CRC. The literature survey revealed that beneficial impact of probiotic supplementation depends on several factors such as strain, dosage, duration of the intervention, host physiology, and other food supplements. The probiotic intervention improves the microbiota, releases antimicrobials and anticarcinogenic agents, helps to remove carcinogens, and improves the intestinal permeability, tight junction function, and enzyme activity in CRC patients. Besides, not all probiotic strains exhibit anti-CRC activities; it is necessary to screen the potent strain for the development of a probiotic-based therapeutic agent to control or prevent the incidence of CRC.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common (∼1.4 million cases of CRC in 2012) cancerous disease worldwide and cause leading cancer-associated deaths (∼700 thousands of mortality) [1]
70% of the CRC incidents are related to environmental factors, and it has increased in technologically developed countries due to lack of physical activities [6, 7]. e gut microbiota is closely associated with the incidence and development of CRC [8]. e altered gut microbiota can provoke the carcinogenesis by altering the immune response, epithelial hemostasis, metabolic profile and activity, DNA damage, and irregular cellular and molecular activities in colonocytes [8,9,10,11]
Baldwin et al [22] demonstrated the effect of live or inactive probiotic strains on the apoptotic capacity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in the colorectal cancer cell line (LS513). e cotreatment of live or inactive L. acidophilus, L. casei, and 5-FU (100 μg/ml) enhanced the apoptotic efficiency (40%) of 5-FU in LS513 cells. e bacterial strains were inactivated through c irradiation or through microwave radiation
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common (∼1.4 million cases of CRC in 2012) cancerous disease worldwide and cause leading cancer-associated deaths (∼700 thousands of mortality) [1]. E gut microbiota is closely associated with the incidence and development of CRC [8]. E administration of probiotics in an adequate amount confers the health benefits to the host by positive regulation of the gut microbiota. E studies suggested that the intervention of probiotics protects the CRC patients from treatment-associated adverse effects compared to the respective control populations in the studies [19,20,21]. E competition for adhesion site, production of microbicidal agents such as bacteriocin, improvement of intestinal permeability, release of bioactive metabolites, regulation of immune pathways, and stimulation of cell protective responses are the key functions of a potent probiotic strain, thereby aiding to prevent the tumorigenesis, not limited to, of CRC [8]. E literature was collected from Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate using the search terms “probiotics” and “colorectal cancer”. e scientific documents (n 50) were selected based on the information relevant to the scope of the current manuscript without any chronological restrictions
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