New research may make it easier to detect colon cancer at an earlier stage, through protein markers of the disease.

Around 40 per cent of patients with colon cancer develop secondary tumours in the liver. Unfortunately, it is hard to detect this spread by conventional imaging. What doctors would like is some early indicator of recurrence or progress of a liver cancer.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are now one step closer towards better detection of liver cancers. They have found a set of proteins called nuclear matrix proteins (NMPs), which are representative of changes in cells that are becoming cancerous. The proteins are found in diseased liver tissue, but not in normal tissue. Their presence seems to indicate a colon tumour which has spread, or is likely to do so.

What the researchers hope to do now is to develop a test for NMPs in tissue, stool samples and blood from patients. This will help identify those most at risk of recurrence, to whom treatment can be given more aggressively to improve the outcome.

Source

Clinical Cancer Research October 2002