Combat Medical Ltd’s Post

Just as many of us start finalising our plans for the annual December festival of overeating and drinking – also known as Christmas – along comes a thought-provoking new study in Gut* that might make you want to swap the pigs in blankets for extra Brussels sprouts. It suggests that overconsumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and inflammatory seed oils (typifying the Western diet) may be fuelling the chronic inflammation that drives the growth and progression of colorectal cancer. Researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) and Tampa General Hospital (TGH) Cancer Institute have shown that the increased level of inflammation seen in the bodies of people with unhealthy diets is also present in the colon tumours themselves. Dr Timothy Yeatman, professor of surgery in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and associate centre director for Translational Research and Innovation at the TGH Cancer Institute, explained: “Cancer is like a chronic wound that won't heal. "If your body is living off daily ultra-processed foods, its ability to heal that wound decreases due to the inflammation and suppression of the immune system that ultimately allows the cancer to grow." The findings signal the urgent need to reevaluate the Western diet. Previous research conducted by the USF Health Heart Institute showed that an imbalanced diet not only influences colorectal cancer but also plays a role in other diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and Alzheimer’s. More food for thought tomorrow! *Soundararajan R et al. Integration of lipidomics with targeted, single cell, and spatial transcriptomics defines an unresolved pro-inflammatory state in colon cancer. Gut Published Online First: 10 December 2024. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2024-332535 #medicalinnovation #Decembeard #bowelcancer #coloncancer #HIPEC #CombatMedical