Chemotherapy exposure increases the risk for therapy-related cancer; however, the mutational consequences of treatment in healthy cells of cancer survivors remain unknown. Bertrums, Rosendahl Huber, de Kanter, and colleagues studied the mutation burden in hematopoietic stem cells of children treated for cancer, revealing an increased treatment-associated mutation burden comparable to the accumulation observed during 16 years of healthy life. This was mostly caused by clock-like processes that are also active during normal aging. Phylogenetic inference of somatic mutations in single cells indicated that most therapy-related myeloid neoplasms originated after the start of treatment and became dominant during or after chemotherapy exposure.

See article, p. 1860.

Initiation and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) can be induced through components of the gut microbiome, with protumorigenic organisms still being defined. Drewes, Chen, Markham, and colleagues tested the tumorigenic potential of colonic mucosal slurries derived from patients with CRC and found that colon...

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