New biomarker ‘could help bowel cancer monitoring’

A new biomarker discovery could play a potentially important role in establishing which bowel cancer patients are most likely to require chemotherapy.

Scientists at the University of Southampton – part-funded by the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK – have determined that patients with low levels of the protein FOXO3 have an increased risk of their cancer spreading to other parts of the body.

By comparing levels of FOXO3 in tissue samples from patients with different stages of bowel cancer, it was established that decreased levels of the protein can be associated with more aggressive forms of the disease.

The team will continue to search for additional biomarkers to further inform bowel cancer treatment techniques in future.

Alexander Mirnezami, co-author and bowel cancer surgeon at Southampton General Hospital, said: "We hope to identify lots of other new biomarkers that can help us adapt treatments based on individual patients' tumour characteristics, as part of a personalised approach to cancer treatment."

In 2009, there were 41,142 new cases of bowel cancer cases registered in the UK, making it the third most common cancer type in the country.