New model developed for predicting colorectal cancer therapy response

A newly-developed mathematical model could help to predict how patients will respond to chemotherapy treatment for colorectal cancer.

According to a paper published in the medical journal Cancer Research, scientists have created a tool that incorporates patient-specific molecular data sets and can calculate the amount of stress required for a cancer cell to die without harming healthy tissue.

Dubbed DR_MOMP, the model was shown to be able to accurately predict treatment responses in patients with colon cancer, leading the researchers to state that the tool could be used similarly in other cancers.

Dr Jochen Prehn, director of the Centre for Systems Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, said: "We need to develop easy and accessible protein profiling and modeling platforms that enable the implementation of this new technology in clinical trials and in pathology laboratories."

Colorectal cancer is also known as bowel cancer and is is the third most common type of cancer in England, with the majority of cases developing among people aged 65 and over.