Colorectal cancer on both sides (adapted from an image via Pixabay)

This retrospective case-control cohort study explored the association between the risk of right and left-sided colorectal cancer and drug use in 7564 patients with colorectal cancer and 300,374 hospitalized controls with no history of colorectal cancer. Arai et al. evaluated drug use, clinical factors, demographic/lifestyle characteristics and transcriptional profiling in precancerous lesions. The authors identified an association between NSAIDs and both left- and right sided colorectal cancer and an association between statins and a lower risk of left sided colorectal cancer. This study demonstrated a region-specific effect that may be due to distinct metabolic signatures between the diseases, which is present even from a premalignant stage. Therefore, these results advocate for targeted chemopreventive strategies in clinical settings.

Arai J, … Fujishiro M. Dig Dis Sci. 2022 Mar 1.

Whole genome sequence (by Darling AE et al. via Wikimedia...

You do not currently have access to this content.