Essential
- Pancreas cancer is often detected too late, because its symptoms are discreet and late.
- Researchers have discovered that stool analysis makes it possible to identify bacterial signatures specific to this disease.
- This approach opens the way to early and non -invasive screening thanks to the intestinal microbiota.
Whether you had a breakfast or not this morning, “Your pancreas works behind the scenes”. This discreet but vital organ produces digestive enzymes and hormones that regulate metabolism. But when he begins to derail, “The consequences can be devastating”, write two scientists of the Quadram Institute, a British research center on food and health, in an article published in The Conversation.
Bacteria revealing in our stools
Pancreas cancer, nicknamed “the silent killer”, is one of the most feared. In most cases, “Patients have symptoms at an advanced stage of the disease”which delays treatments. Result: in 2024, the number of deaths by pancreatic cancer in France were 12,700, for some 16,000 new cases. The most common type, pancreatic canal adenocarcinoma (ADKP), is formed in the channel connecting the pancreas to the small intestine. It blocks the passage of digestive enzymes and disrupts energy metabolism, leaving patients “Chronically tired and suffering”.
Since the pancreas is connected to the digestive system, the researchers are today interested in a little glamorous but promising source: the stool. “Analyzing the excrement may seem strange,” they recognize, but they contain “a wealth of information on our health”. Indeed, “Bacterial cells in the body exceed human cells in number”and these microorganisms form complex communities which reveal the state of our organism.
Towards non -invasive screening?
ADKP developing in an area connected to the digestive system, the excrement becomes “A non -invasive and practical window on what is happening in the body”according to researchers. By analyzing stool samples thanks to bacterial DNA sequencing, a 2025 study has shown that ADKP patients present “Reduced bacterial diversity” and an altered microbial profile. Better still, the authors of the study have developed an artificial intelligence model capable of “Precisely distinguish patient patients from healthy subjects” From their only intestinal microbiota.
“The field of research on the microbiome evolves quickly”underline the researchers of the Quadram Institute. New techniques such as “metagenomic sequencing shotgun“(literally, hunting rifles) even let us know whether certain bacteria have recently been transferred from one individual to another. “We go from a vision centered on humans to a more microbiome ‘human conception.”
Beyond pancreatic cancer, these approaches extend to other pathologies, such as colorectal cancer or Parkinson’s disease. “The interactions between cancer and bacteria are bidirectional” : Some signatures indicate the disease, while others are the consequence. For the two researchers, “The microbial look at health is therefore no longer a scientific curiosity”but indeed a new medical reality, full of promises, which could, tomorrow, save lives thanks to what we evacuate every day in the toilet.
