Queen’s scientists leading research to improve outcomes for ‘born-to-be-bad’ bowel tumours

Researchers from the Patrick G Johnston Centre, led by Dr Philip Dunne, molecular pathologist, are working with a multi-disciplinary team of research scientists and clinicians from across the UK and Europe.

There are approximately 1.4 million cases of bowel cancer diagnosed worldwide every year and the introduction of the bowel cancer screening (BCS) programme for people over the age of 60 has led to a significant increase in the proportion of patients who are diagnosed with early-stage cancers.

Survival rates for patients diagnosed at the earliest stage of bowel cancer are in excess of 95 per cent, but only in a small proportion of cases, screening identifies patients with highly aggressive tumours.

This presents a major challenge in the clinic, as current diagnostic techniques are unable to distinguish these aggressive tumours that require more extensive in-patient treatment, from patients with less aggressive tumours that can be treated as outpatients.

Dr Dunne explained: “This new project aims to use state of the art molecular technologies to identify for the first time the underlying biology of these aggressive ‘born-to-be-bad’ tumours. This information can be used to develop clinical ‘biomarkers’ of aggressive disease that can be used to guide treatment decision making for patients in the future.”

The bowel cancer screening programme is freely available to everyone over the age of 60, with a test being sent to your home every two years.

“The test is designed for people who have no symptoms and can detect very early signs of bowel cancer, sometimes up to 10 years before the development of advanced disease.

In a lot of cases the screening test can identify non-cancerous polyps in the bowel, which, if left unchecked, may become cancerous over time; thus, preventing the cancer from ever occurring.

Dr Maurice Loughrey, consultant pathologist at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and coinvestigator within the consortium, said: “The bowel cancer screening programme is saving lives by identifying very early tumours in patients with no symptoms.

“Our consortium aims to improve our understanding of how these tumours grow and develop, with results being used to guide the development of clinical trials in the near future.”

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