SynthesisBritish journal of cancer2020
Antibiotic use and risk of colorectal cancer: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.
Synthesis in British journal of cancer, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of antibiotic exposure on risks of colorectal tumors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Association between antibiotic exposure and adverse outcomes of children and pregnant women: evidence from an umbrella review.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2023Pooled it
- Antibiotics use and risk of colorectal neoplasia: An updated meta-analysis.International journal of colorectal disease · 2022Pooled it
- Antibiotic exposure and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Pooled it
- Higher Yogurt Consumption Is Associated With Lower Risk of Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- The impact of gut microbiota and metabolite-driven immune cell spatiotemporal dynamics on tumors.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Risk Factors in Sporadic Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer, Current Evidence and Emerging Insights: A Systematic Review.Cancers · 2026Review
- Antibiotic use and gut microbiome composition links from individual-level prescription data of 14,979 individuals.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Association between Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Use and Risk of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2026Article
- Gut microbiome in colorectal cancer: recent advances and clinical implications.Annals of coloproctology · 2026Review
- Chronic Antibiotic Use, Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis, and Increased Risk of Colorectal Cancer: An Emerging Threat.Health science reports · 2026Article
- The gut resistome as a potential determinant of immunotherapy response: antibiotics, immunometabolism, and precision oncology.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Understanding microbiota-driven oncogenesis: The role of metabolites in tumorigenesis.iScience · 2025Review
- Emerging Understanding of Gut Microbiome in Colorectal Cancer and Food-Related Intervention Strategies.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Sex Differences in Colorectal Cancer: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Clinical Outcomes.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Effect of laxative use and laxative type on colorectal cancer risk: A pooling up analysis and evidence synthesis.Oncology letters · 2025Article
- Prior antibiotics exposure is associated with an elevated risk of surgical site infections, including anastomotic leakage, after colon cancer but not rectal cancer surgery: A register-based study of 38,839 patients.International journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Prenatal and Early Childhood Exposure to Proton Pump Inhibitors and Antibiotics and the Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.Drug safety · 2025Article
- Exploring the Impact of Chemotherapy on the Emergence of Antibiotic Resistance in the Gut Microbiota of Colorectal Cancer Patients.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Beyond microbial abundance: metadata integration enhances disease prediction in human microbiome studies.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt is understudied whether the posed association of oral antibiotics with colorectal cancer (CRC) varies between antibiotic spectrums, colorectal continuum, and if a non-linear dose-dependent relationship is present.
designThree electronic databases and a trial platform were searched for all relevant studies, from inception until February 2020, without restrictions. Random-effects meta-analyses provided pooled effect-sizes (ES) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Dose-response analyses modelling the relationship between number of days exposed to antibiotics and CRC risk were extended to non-linear multivariable random-effects models.
resultsOf 6483 identified publications ten were eligible, including 4.1 million individuals and over 73,550 CRC cases. The pooled CRC risk was increased among individuals who ever-used antibiotics (ES = 1.17, 95%CI 1.05-1.30), particularly for broad-spectrum antibiotics (ES = 1.70, 95%CI 1.26-2.30), but not for narrow-spectrum antibiotic (ES = 1.11, 95% 0.93-1.32). The dose-response analysis did not provide strong evidence of any particular dose-response association, and the risk patterns were rather similar for colon and rectal cancer. DISCUSSION: The antibiotic use associated CRC risk seemingly differs between broad- and narrow-spectrum antibiotics, and possibly within the colorectal continuum. It remains unclear whether this association is causal, requiring more mechanistic studies and further clarification of drug-microbiome interactions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.