A technique commonly used to prevent cancer might not be as effective as we thought – and a new study might have found the reason why. It turns out that the trillions of microbes that call your gut home could be to blame. The research suggests that the gut microbiome could remain disrupted for a decade or more after the common procedure, in ways that keep cancer risk elevated. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world, but thankfully, risk factors