A gnotobiotic mouse model demonstrates that dietary fiber protects against colorectal tumorigenesis in a microbiota- and butyrate-dependent manner

These results, which link diet and microbiota to a tumor-suppressive metabolite, provide insight into conflicting epidemiologic findings and suggest that probiotic/prebiotic strategies can modulate an endogenous HDAC inhibitor for anticancer chemoprevention without the adverse effects associated with synthetic HDAC inhibitors used in chemotherapy.