Local medical specialists have found that a bacterium in the intestinal channel of humans is closely related with colorectal cancer and can be used as a biomarker for early cancer screening, doctors told the International Conference of Gastroenterology in Shanghai on Friday. The bacterium, clostridium symbiosum, was found to be at a high level in patients with colorectal cancer through multi-center research, doctors from Shanghai’s Renji Hospital announced. “We tested the level of this bacterium in patients with colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and other intestinal diseases and found only those with colorectal cancer have very high levels,” Dr Fang Jingyuan, vice president of Renji Hospital said. “We are the first to make this discovery and it was published by world leading medical journals and has aroused the attention of international counterparts.”