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Understanding the Genetics of Colon Cancer
Reported December 30, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- As researchers and clinicians search for causes
and cures for colorectal cancer, 160,000 cases are diagnosed and 57,000
patients die of the disease each year. It is the second leading cause of
death from cancer among adults, after lung cancer.
In a recent study, Dr. Sanford Markowitz, professor at Case Western Reserve
University School of Medicine and oncologist at Case Medical Center, and
co-author, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, from the Brigham and Women's Hospital,
Harvard Medical School, were quoted as saying, "Today's challenges are to
understand the molecular basis of individual susceptibility to colorectal
cancer and to determine factors that initiate the development of the tumor,
drive its progression, and determine its responsiveness or resistance to
antitumor agents."
Studies that aid in understanding colorectal cancer on a molecular level
have provided genetic testing for high-risk familial forms of the disease,
predictive markers for selecting patients for certain classes of drug
therapies and molecular diagnostics for the noninvasive detection of early
cancers.
For example, patients with inherited mutations in tumor-suppressor genes,
such as APC, MLH1, and MSH2, have a very high risk of colorectal cancer and
require early and frequent surveillance for colon cancer and often
prophylactic surgery.
Patients whose colon cancers have mutations in either RAS or BRAF genes are
known not to benefit from treatment with the anti-colon cancer agent
Cetuximab.
The development of molecular diagnostics for the early detection of
colorectal cancer is emerging as an important tool in clinical practice. One
example is the development of stool DNA tests for early detection of
colorectal cancer or advanced adenomas. Stool DNA testing for colorectal
cancer has now been added to the cancer-screening guidelines of the American
Cancer Society.
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, December 17, 2009 |
