Clostridioides difficile is best known for causing antibiotic-related diarrhea, but a new review from China suggests it may also promote gastrointestinal cancers, especially colorectal cancer (CRC). The authors summarize clinical data, epidemiology, and tumor models showing how recurrent infection, toxins, inflammation, metabolism, and biofilms could reshape the colonic microenvironment. They argue chronic C. difficile infection as a potential driver of colorectal tumorigenesis and a promising biomarker, offering new insights for effective CRC prevention and therapy.

A team led by Prof. Fei Ling from South China University of Technology developed PRTS (Pathology-driven Reconstruction of Transcriptomic States), a deep learning framework that predicts single-cell-resolution spatial transcriptomics directly from H&E-stained histology images.