A sweet side to fusobacteria

Gilad Bachrach; Wendy S Garrett

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2026.02.009

A sweet side to fusobacteria

Cell Host Microbe. 2026 Mar 11;34(3):370-372. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.02.009.

Authors

Gilad Bachrach¹, Wendy S Garrett²

Affiliations

¹ The Institute of Dental Sciences, The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: giladba@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
² Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; The Harvard T.H. Chan Microbiome in Public Health Center, Boston, MA, USA; The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 41819081
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.02.009

Abstract

In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Sorrenti et al. reexamine fusobacteria's effects on colorectal cancer (CRC) outcomes, finding that Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) may not always be bad for patients. Their data suggest that a host's immunogenetics influence whether Fn is a harmful or helpful oncomicrobe in CRC.

MeSH terms

Colorectal Neoplasms* / genetics
Colorectal Neoplasms* / immunology
Colorectal Neoplasms* / microbiology
Fusobacterium Infections* / complications
Fusobacterium Infections* / immunology
Fusobacterium Infections* / microbiology
Fusobacterium nucleatum* / pathogenicity
Humans