New cancer found

Monday April 15th, 2013

Scientists have found a new kind of bowel cancer, which places patients at high risk, it was announced last night.

The new kind of cancer, described as a sub-type, makes the disease resistant to some targeted treatments, according to researchers.

The findings come from a study of some 1,100 patients and mean researchers have been able to devise a test for the new kind of cancer.

Researchers conducted analysis of some 146 genes, using them to identify sub-types of disease.

This confirmed two previously known sub-types and also the new third one.

The findings were reported in Nature Medicine last night.

Researcher Dr Louis Vermeulen, from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Cambridge University, UK, said:  “We identified a new sub-type of bowel cancer by studying how the genes in tumours behaved.

"This allowed us to develop a quick and easy test to identify this sub-type, which has a poor prognosis and responds poorly to anti-EGFR therapy – a recognised treatment for many bowel cancers.

“When we further examined what properties described the three sub-types we found that this third sub-type was already primed to spread from an early stage, something that was previously only thought to occur much later in tumour development.

"We speculate these differences between the different sub-types may arise from the cell of origin for the tumour rather than any specific mutation."

Dr Kate Law, of Cancer Research UK, said: "Studies like this one are essential for uncovering the basic building blocks of cancer, allowing us to adopt a more personalised approach to curing cancer and develop better treatments sooner."

Nature Medicine 15 April 2013

Tags: Cancer | Gastroenterology | Genetics | UK News

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