Taking antibiotics for a prolonged period, from early adulthood to middle age, could lead to the growth of precancerous colon in women.
A new study reveals that when compared to women who do not take antibiotics for prolonged periods, those who took the drug for over two weeks, or more, in their 20s to 50s, were more susceptible to getting colon lesions when in their 60s.
These colon lesions — dubbed adenomas or polyps — may potentially lead to the development of colon cancer in the woman's body. Polyps or colorectal adenomas are abnormal growths, which are found in the rectum or colon.
Although the risk of colon cancer was raised in connection with consumption of antibiotics, the study's lead researcher Andrew Chan of Harvard Medical School, assured that the situation was not too serious, given that some individuals need to consume the drug for medical purposes.
Chan asserted that this study does not in any way evidence that extended antibiotic usage leads to the growth of polyps. The study only highlights that the two seem to be interlinked.
Link Between Antibiotic Usage And Colon Cancer?
Antibiotics essentially disturb the number and assortment of bacteria present in the "microbiome" or gut.
It also decreases the body's ability to fend off poisonous bacteria. This may play a vital role in the creation of precancerous growths in the bowel, according to researchers.
"This suggests that alterations in the naturally occurring bacteria that live in one's intestines caused by antibiotics might predispose individuals to colorectal cancer," said Chan.
The Research
For the study, the researchers collected data from women who participated in the Nurses Health Study. The Nurse Health Study monitored the health of 121,700 nurses in the United States. All the nurses were aged between 30 to 55 years when they first participated in the study in 1976.
Since the time, these participants contributed detailed information about their lifestyle, medical history, demographics, and disease development every two years. Every four years, data on their dietary habits was also collected.
For the current study, the researchers limited the data analysis to 16,642 women aged 60 years and above as of 2004.
The selected women had undergone at least one colonoscopy from 2004 to 2010. They were also required to give their antibiotic consumption history between 20 to 59 years.
What Did The Researchers Find?
From 2004 to 2010, the researchers diagnosed 1,195 new instances of adenomas in the group of participants. The researchers noted that this was not linked to the use of antibiotics in the past four years, but was due to prolonged use of antibiotics in the past.
The researchers discovered that if a woman used antibiotics for roughly two months in her 20s or 30s, it increased her risk to have polyps by 36 percent, vis-à-vis a woman who didn't consume the drug for a prolonged period. The risk of polyps was higher if the woman maintained this habit in her 40s or 50s as well. In this case, the woman had 69 percent more chances of being diagnosed with polyps.
However, the study suggests that using antibiotics for a short time doesn't eliminate the risk of colon cancer.
The researchers acknowledge that the study is not complete as there was insufficient information on the types of antibiotics the participants consumed. It is also likely that some polyps existed before the participants started consuming antibiotics.
The study has been published in the medical journal Gut.
