8.7.2024 Eliminating a gut microbe could slash gastric cancers

In 2011, a Chinese research team began visiting nearly 1000 villages in Shandong province to launch an unprecedented cancer prevention experiment. A simple breath test given to more than 180,000 people revealed that, like most populations around the world, more than half harbored the bacterium Helicobacter pylori in their guts. Famed for causing stomach inflammation and ulcers, the microbe has also been tied to most gastric cancer cases, which account for 7.7% of all cancer deaths.

The team gave about half of those infected a brief course of antibiotics to rid them of the gut microbe. Then they waited—and waited