如果你问一个细胞生物学家癌症是如何来的，答案是:通过干细胞的突变。

If you ask a cell biologist how cancer develops, the answer is: through a mutation in a stem cell.

来自鹿特丹伊拉斯谟医学中心的科学家在《自然遗传学》杂志上发表的研究打破了这一规则。

In a new publication in the journal "Nature Genetics", scientists from the Erasmus Medical Center (Erasmus MC) in Rotterdam and the Philipps University of Marburg break this dogma.

他们表明，肠道肿瘤也可以从一种特殊的细胞类型发展而来，这种细胞类型实际上产生粘液或抗菌分子。

They show that an intestinal tumor can also develop from a specialized cell type that actually has the task of producing mucus or antibacterial molecules.

研究人员得出这一发现是因为一个矛盾。

The researchers came to this discovery because of a contradiction.

结肠癌的主要危险因素，即慢性炎症和西方饮食习惯，会抑制正常的干细胞。

The main risk factors for colon cancer, namely chronic inflammation and western dietary habits, the so-called western-style diet, lead to the normal stem cells being suppressed.

然而，如果是这样的话，干细胞就不可能是结肠肿瘤的起源。

However, if this is the case, they cannot be the origin of the colon tumors.

来自马尔堡的药理学家马克·施密特博士参与了这项研究，他早期的研究表明，实际上专门从事其他任务的肠道细胞，在炎症引起的组织损伤下会转化为干细胞样细胞，从而使肠道组织再生。

Earlier studies by Dr. Mark Schmitt, a pharmacologist from Marburg, who was involved in the work, show that intestinal cells that actually specialize in other tasks revert to a stem cell-like cell type in response to inflammation-induced tissue damage in order to regenerate the intestinal tissue.

那么，特化的肠细胞是否可能是与炎症有关的肠道肿瘤的起源?

Could the specialized intestinal cell then be the origin of intestinal tumours that develop in connection with inflammation?

这个假设被证明是正确的。

This hypothesis proved to be correct.

正如施密特博士的研究小组能够证明的那样，西式饮食同样会导致干细胞的损失和特化细胞的激活，这些细胞随后会生长成肿瘤。

As Dr. Schmitt's research group was able to show, the consumption of a Western-style diet similarly leads to a loss of stem cells and the activation of specialized cells that could then grow into a tumor.

研究结果现在证实了研究人员的怀疑，即西方生活方式、慢性炎症和年轻时结直肠癌的发展之间存在联系。

The results now confirm the researchers' suspicion that there is a link between Western lifestyle, chronic inflammation and the development of colorectal cancer at a young age.

他们的发现也很重要，因为它们可能导致结肠癌的新分类，研究人员认为:由特化细胞产生的结直肠肿瘤比由肠道干细胞产生的肿瘤预后更差。

Their findings are also important because they could lead to a new classification of colon cancer, the researchers argue: colorectal tumors that arise from specialized cells have a worse prognosis than tumors that arise from intestinal stem cells.

研究人员希望，最新的分类将有助于更好地预测疾病进展和个性化治疗。

The researchers hope that the updated classification will lead to better prediction of disease progression and personalized treatments.

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION

Mathijs P. Verhagen, Rosalie Joosten, Mark Schmitt, Niko Välimäki, Andrea Sacchetti, Kristiina Rajamäki, Jiahn Choi, Paola Procopio, Sara Silva, Berdine van der Steen, Thierry P. P. van den Bosch, Danielle Seinstra, Annemarie C. de Vries, Michail Doukas, Leonard H. Augenlicht, Lauri A. Aaltonen, Riccardo Fodde; "Non-stem cell lineages as an alternative origin of intestinal tumorigenesis in the context of inflammation"; Nature Genetics, 2024-6-20