Chemotherapy before bowel cancer surgery ‘can improve outcomes’

A major Cancer Research UK-funded pilot study has revealed a new way of treating bowel cancer that can improve the success rate of surgical procedures.

Scientists have found that giving selected bowel cancer patients six weeks of chemotherapy before surgery can significantly shrink the tumour, thus making it easier to remove and potentially preventing the disease from returning.

This method is standard practice for several related cancer types, including oesophageal, stomach and rectal cancer, but it was previously considered too risky to attempt among colon cancer sufferers.

However, the new study utilised the latest computed tomography techniques to carefully and accurately select patients who could benefit from this approach.

Chief investigator Professor Dion Morton from the University of Birmingham said the research paves the way for "a larger phase III study which, if successful, could completely change the way we treat colon cancer within five years".

Bowel cancer affects more than 36,500 people in the UK every year and is the second most common cancer in women, as well as the third most frequent among men.