UK scientists have found a more accurate way to detect aggressive bowel cancers using a stem cell marker protein; they hope that the new development will improve treatment and survival for thousands of patients.
The new method was developed by a team led by scientists from Durham University and the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) who worked on a project funded by the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) and NHS. Their work is published as a study in the open- access scientific journal Public Library of Science One, PLOS One.
The researchers used tissue samples from 700 bowel (colorectal) cancer patients and followed the progress of the disease. They found that patients who had the most aggressive forms of the disease also had a stem cell marker protein called Lamin A in their tissue. They concluded that the marker could be used to screen patients with early forms of the disease, where usually only surgery is performed, to find out which ones might have the more aggressive cancers and can then be given chemotherapy as well.
Colorectal or bowel cancer has four key stages, for which there are tests that then determine what kind of treatment the patient receives. In stages one and two, the cancer has not spread to the lymph nodes and is still local to the original site, so patients normally have surgery to remove the cancer from that part of the bowel. Patients don’t as a rule have chemotherapy for these early stages because they are usually elderly and frail and it could do more harm than good.
But based on their findings, the researchers estimated that one third of patients with early stage bowel cancer are likely to be expressing the Lamin A stem cell marker, indicating that they have an aggressive form of the disease. These should be given chemotherapy to target those stem cells, said the researchers, since that should improve recovery and survival rates.
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, where according to Cancer Research UK more than 36,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every year. On a worldwide level, every year over a million people find out they have bowel cancer, with nearly three-quarters of them being aged 65 and over. Diet, lifestyle and environmental factors are thought to be the major contributors to the development of the disease.
The researchers are working on developing their prototype method into a more robust tool for use in the health service.
“Lamin A/C Is a Risk Biomarker in Colorectal Cancer.”
Willis ND, Cox TR, Rahman-Casañs SF, Smits K, Przyborski SA, et al.
PLoS ONE 3(8): e2988, published online 20 Aug 2008.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002988
Source: Journal abstract, Durham University/NESCI.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD