​Bowel cancer treatment hope as scientists solve immune system mystery

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Institute have discovered how bowel cancer blinds the immune system so it cannot see the cancer and renders it unable to destroy it.

Dr Seth Coffelt, who led the research, said: “Normally, immune cells keep things as they should be, patrolling the bowel like security guards, tackling any harmful bacteria and keeping the gut healthy.

“However, when cells in the bowel become cancerous, they fire these ‘security guards’ and all the methods these immune cells use to talk to each other to co-ordinate an immune response no longer get produced.

“Cancer doesn’t want immune cells recognising them as a threat, so they manipulate the immune cells so they can’t see the threat and simply pass on by leaving the cancer to do its damage.”

Scientists have said the discovery, published in Cancer Immunology Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, opens the door to potentially reversing or preventing this process. It would allow the immune system to see the bowel cancer cells and stop them from growing and multiplying.

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with about 16,800 deaths in the country every year – or 46 every day.

The team which made the discovery is now hopeful further research could offer treatments which could reverse that process. Discovering how the cancer calls trick the immune system offers potential for new treatments which could reactivate these immune cells, researchers said.