Decade of International Research Delivers Colon Cancer Marker
Ten years of detailed genetic study and tumor testing has led an international team of researchers to the discovery of a gene marker strongly linked to colon cancer.
Researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M) Medical School, the U-M School of Public Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Spain, the CHS National Israeli Cancer Control Center, and Technion (The Israeli Institute of Technology) compared thousands of tissue samples from healthy individuals and colon cancer patients in a population consisting of Israeli Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews and Arab/non-Jews with known ancestral heritage. Their study also included the immediate family members of the colon cancer patients.
Results from the massive project, known as the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer, revealed that people who possessed a genetic variation on chromosone 8, called 8q24, were significantly more likely to develop colon cancer than those without it. The 8q24 link was particularly strong in patients who developed the disease before age 50.
Colon cancer is currently the leading cause of cancer deaths in Israel and the American Cancer Society estimates more than 50,000 Americans will die from it in 2007, but it is often preventable with proper screening.
If you’d like to learn more about the research, information can be found in the July 2007 edition of Cancer Biology and Therapy.
Source: University of Michigan Health System
Related Studies: Nature Genetics
Tags: allele; Dr Stephen Gruber; U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center; NCI; Irving Weinstein Foundation; Ravitz Foundatiion; colorectal cancer
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