Could colon cancer be caused by gut bacteria?

According to data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), there may be 140,250 new cases of colorectal cancer reported in the US in 2018. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) list obesity, unhealthy eating habits, and a family history of colon cancer among the known risk factors for this malignancy. The question of whether differences in the bacterial populations that live in our stomachs affect how genes are expressed and contribute to the development of colon cancer has drawn the attention of researchers more and more recently.