In a recent publication Kota Arima and other OPTIMISTICC team members published a paper Western-Style Diet, pks Island-Carrying Escherichia coli, and Colorectal Cancer: Analyses From Two Large Prospective Cohort Studies. Evidence supports a carcinogenic role of Escherichia coli carrying the pks island that encodes enzymes for colibactin biosynthesis. They hypothesized that the association of the Western-style diet (rich in red and processed meat) with colorectal cancer incidence might be stronger for tumors containing higher amounts of pks⁺E coli. They measured pks⁺E coli DNA in 1175 tumors among 3200 incident colorectal cancer cases that had occurred during the follow-up. They found that the Western-style diet is associated with a higher incidence of colorectal cancer containing abundant pks⁺E coli, supporting a potential link between diet, the intestinal microbiota, and colorectal carcinogenesis.