Colorectal cancer and Cryptosporidium spp. infection

Abstract

Transient or constant impaired immunity is often associated with neoplastic disease or oncological treatment. Among the most common pathogens found in patients with HIV or patients undergoing chemotherapy are protozoans of the Cryptosporidium genus, which cause diarrhea in humans and animals. The present study determined the frequency of Cryptosporidium spp. infections in patients with colorectal cancer (N = 108; 42 women; 66 men; median age, 65 years), before beginning oncological treatment, compared to a control group (N = 125; 56 women, 69 men; median age, 63 years) without colorectal cancer or a history of oncological disease. We also assessed whether Cryptosporidium spp. infections were associated with age, gender, cancer stage (based on Astler-Coller or TNM classification), histological grade, or cancer location. Patients were treated at the Pomeranian Medical University, in 2009–2014. The presence of Cryptosporidium spp. antigen was determined in stool samples, analyzed with a commercial immunoenzymatic test. Cryptosporidium spp. infections occurred significantly more often (p = 0.015) in patients (13%) compared to controls (4%). The patient group showed no significant relationship between Cryptosporidium spp. infection and sex, age, tumor location, cancer grade, or stage. A multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for age and sex that included all subjects (patient + control groups, n = 233) showed that the odds of a Cryptosporidium spp. infection were more than three-fold higher in patients than in controls, and more than six-fold higher among men than among women. Conclusions: 1) Cryptosporidium spp. infections occurred significantly more frequently in patients with colorectal cancer (before oncological treatment) compared to controls, independent of age and sex. 2) Cryptosporidium spp. infections were not associated with the colorectal cancer stage, grade, or location or with patient age. 3) Male gender was significantly related to the frequency of Cryptosporidium spp. infections, independent of age and the presence of colorectal cancer.

Prevalence and Genotyping of Cryptosporidium parvum in Gastrointestinal Cancer Patients

“…Several epidemiological studies demonstrated that colorectal cancer is highly correlated with Cryptosporidium spp. [10][11][12][13][14]. In consistence, we here found that 17.24% patients with colorectal cancer had C. parvum infections, which was significantly higher than control population.…”

“…In 2007, the first epidemiological study in Poland showed that 10 out of 55 (18%) patients with diagnosed colorectal cancer had cryptosporidiosis, and the infection rate was even higher in those patients with diarrhea symptom (43.5%, 10/55) [10]. Another two reports also conducted in Poland showed similar infection rates (12.6%, 11/87 and 13%, 14/108) [11,12]. Recently, Osman M. et al (2017) performed a systematic analysis among Lebanese patients which indicated that Cryptosporidium spp.…”

The First Evidence of Cryptosporidium meleagridis Infection in a Colon Adenocarcinoma From an Immunocompetent Patient

“…Epidemiological studies have shown an association between colorectal cancer and Cryptosporidium spp. infection (Osman et al, 2018; Sulzyc-Bielicka et al, 2018). Furthermore, a limited number of experimental studies have shown that C. parvum induces neoplastic changes in immunocompromised animals and in cells cultured in vitro , consistent with a role in carcinogenesis (Benamrouz et al, 2012a,b).…”

First report of Cryptosporidium viatorum and Cryptosporidium occultus in humans in China, and of the unique novel C. viatorum subtype XVaA3h

“…Cryptosporidium is a common opportunistic pathogen in immunodeficient/immunocompromised individuals, especially HIV-infected patients, cancer patients and children younger than 5 years old [10,29,37]. In the present study, one case was a cancer patient and another was a child younger than 5 years old, both of whom were susceptible to Cryptosporidium.…”