Bowel cancer breakthrough

by LotusFlower | November 17, 2008 at 12:41 pm

106 views | 2 Recommendations | 0 comments

Bowel cancer scientists have announced a major breakthrough that could lead to better treatment of bowel cancer perhaps eventually even drugs that might be used to develop vaccines against it.

Bowel cancer kills many thousands of people a year but if caught early then outcomes can be good.

This new breakthrough could see bowel cancer patients getting even better outcomes.

Scientists have established how bowel cancer turns aggressive, leading the way for potential new drug treatments, it has been revealed.

Researchers in Cardiff and Glasgow are behind a study which showed how a particular protein stimulates tumours, making them more likely to spread.

The protein called AKT is triggered when another, called Pten, is faulty and coincides with a third protein known as APC.

The authors of the research identified AKT as a strong lead for drug development to treat bowel cancer.

Professor Alan Clarke, a Cancer Research UK scientist at the Cardiff School of Biosciences, said: "We now have a model of how bowel cancer progresses.

"This has given us a clearer picture of how bowel tumours actually grow and provides scientists with crucial information for drug design to slow down or stop the spread of the disease.