Studying The Human Microbiome And It’s Role In Colon Cancer
Dr. Jon LaPook, CBS News Medical Contributor and Professor at New York University Langone Medical School, discusses a very exciting new field of research—studying the human microbiome and it’s role in colon cancer. The microbiome is the collection of the trillions of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) that are part of the human body that are not our own cells. This could be the next frontier in colon cancer research and understanding the microbiome’s role in preventing colon cancer. This research was inspired in part by the rise of colon cancer in young people. It looks at how we might be changing the microbiome in our body by the use of antibiotics, our diet, or even something else that we aren’t aware of yet.