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Investigating how the gut environment affects bowel cancer in younger people

Lead Researcher: Professor Mohammad Ilyas

Location: University of Nottingham

Grant award: £148,570

Bowel cancers in younger people may grow more quickly than in people aged over 50. Professor Mohammad Ilyas compared samples of bowel cancer from younger people with samples from older people to understand if there are differences that might affect how quickly a tumour grows. 

The challenge

Bowel cancer is more common in people over 50, but over 2,600 younger people are diagnosed with the disease each year. We know that changes to genes can cause some bowel cancers in younger people, but for most cases, it is not clear why the disease develops. Researchers believe that bowel cancers may also grow more quickly in younger people, but we don’t yet understand what might be causing this. It's thought there may be differences in bowel cancers in younger people compared to those over 50 that might explain this faster growth  

The science behind the project

Bowel cancer is made up of lots of different types of cells including tumour cells and healthy cells (such as immune system cells or blood vessel cells). These non-tumour cells live in a community alongside the tumour cells and are collectively referred to as the “tumour microenvironment”. 

This research investigated whether some of the healthy cells in the tumour microenvironment could be influencing how quickly the tumour cells grow. Professor Ilyas and his colleagues used a range of laboratory techniques to study the tumour microenvironment. They looked at the tumour microenvironment in bowel cancers from younger people and compared those with bowel cancers from older people. 

Results

The team examined cases of bowel cancer from Nottingham University Hospital. They found that patients under the age of 50 were more likely to have metastasis (when the cancer has spread from the bowel to other parts of the body) and had a higher risk of dying from their disease. 

They then analysed samples of the patients’ bowel cancer tumours and surrounding tissue. This showed that some genes known to be involved in cancer progression have higher activity levels in younger bowel cancer patients. This difference may be why their cancers grow more quickly. 

The researchers are continuing to look at this data to see if they can find specific cell types in the tumour microenvironment responsible for the changes in gene activity. 

What difference will this project make?

This project gives more information about how bowel cancer differs between younger and older people. It has highlighted some genes of interest that could play a key role in how early onset bowel cancer develops and this information can be used to guide future research into this area.  

In the longer term, the findings from this project could help to develop new and more effective treatments for this group of patients.

 

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