Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Evaluating Cell Death Using Cell-Free Supernatant of Probiotics in Three-Dimensional Spheroid Cultures of Colorectal Cancer Cells
Published on: June 13, 2020
[Microorganisms and cancer: scientific evidence and new hypotheses]
Encarna Velázquez1, Alvaro Peix, Alberto Gómez-Alonso
1Departamento de Microbiología y Genética, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
Abstract:
Microorganism involvement in cancer has been known for over a century, and different types of parasites, bacteria and viruses have been associated with oncogenic processes. Among the bacteria, the first recognised was Helicobacter pylori which causes gastric cancer and might be related to extra-gastric cancer in humans. Helicobacter hepaticus has been associated with liver cancers using animal models. Other bacteria, such as Chlamydia psitacii, Borrelia burgdorferi and Streptococcus bovis, have been associated with ocular, skin and colorectal cancers, respectively. Also, a commensal bacterium in the human intestine, Bacteroides fragilis, has been linked, very recently, with colorectal cancer using animal models.
Related Concept Videos
The Tumor Microenvironment
The Tumor Microenvironment
Mechanisms of Retrovirus-induced Cancers
Mechanisms of Retrovirus-induced Cancers
Cancer-Critical Genes I: Proto-oncogenes
When the function of certain critical genes, especially those involved in cell cycle regulation and cell growth signaling cascades, gets disrupted, it upsets the cell cycle progression. Such cells with unchecked cell cycles start proliferating uncontrollably and eventually develop into tumors.
Such genes that act...
Cancer-Critical Genes I: Proto-oncogenes
When the function of certain critical genes, especially those involved in cell cycle regulation and cell growth signaling cascades, gets disrupted, it upsets the cell cycle progression. Such cells with unchecked cell cycles start proliferating uncontrollably and eventually develop into tumors.
Such genes that act...

