A bacterium already implicated in stomach cancer may quietly be shaping the global burden of colorectal cancer as well. A pooled analysis of 43 studies, covering more than 48 million people, suggests that Helicobacter pylori exposure could be linked to roughly one in five colorectal cancer cases worldwide—a disease that claimed some 900,000 lives in 2022 alone. The finding does not establish cause, but it opens a door that medicine has long left ajar: that a common, treatable infection may be a meaningful and preventable thread in one of humanity's most lethal cancers.
H. pylori linked to 1 in 5 colorectal cancer cases globally, study suggests
Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related death, with nearly 2 million new cases and 900,000 deaths worldwide in 2022.