New biomarker could play important role in colon cancer diagnosis

Author: Jamie Francis

Researchers have discovered a new biomarker that could play a key role in helping doctors to identify patients suffering from bowel or colon cancer.

According to a report by The Aurora Sentinel newspaper, researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Centre (UCCC) have found an enzyme that can help improve diagnosis rates for bowel cancer. A total of 40 people known to be suffering from the cancer were tested for the biomarker, known as ALDH1B1. Results of the study revealed that high levels of the enzyme were discovered in 39 of those patients.

David Orlicky, a researcher at the UCCC, said that although other biomarkers for colon cancer have been identified in the past, none have been present in such high levels as ALDH1B1, nor have they been present in such a high percentage of the cancer cells.

And because of the high levels found, the researchers believe the enzyme could play an important role in helping the cancer to grow. If the enzyme was simply a by-product of the disease, then the levels of the enzyme would be lower. If the biomarker can help to accurately show at an early stage which patients are likely to suffer from bowel cancer, it could prove to be massively beneficial to millions of people around the world. The sooner a patient can start receiving treatment, the better the prognosis.

Further research is now being carried out in Colorado in order to discover more about the enzyme and how it might be used to help in the fight against colon cancer. Vasilis Vasiliou, PhD, professor of molecular toxicology at the UCCC, said the team at the university is now focused on drug development. They want to create a substance that could turn into a toxic compound when it reacts with the enzyme, killing the cancer cells.

Statistics show that almost 40,000 people were diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK in 2008. This equates to an average of 110 people every single day, making the disease the third most common form of cancer in Britain today. Across the world, an estimated 1.24 million people were diagnosed with the disease in 2008.

But there is also good news. Five-year survival rates for bowel cancer have doubled over the last 40 years, and half of all patients diagnosed with the disease now survive for at least 10 years.

New cancer href="http://science.thomsonreuters.com/info/biomarkers/">biomarkers are being found all the time thanks to biomarker research and more is being understood about the disease as a result.