Predicting the probability of cancer spread in early-stage bowel cancer patients

Lead researcher: Professor Joanne Edwards

Location: University of Glasgow

Grant award: £18,300

Professor Joanne Edwards and her team are looking at the changes cancers go through when they spread to other organs.  They will do this by comparing cancer cells from patients with early-stage disease with those from patients whose bowel cancer has spread.

The challenge

Cancer spread, or metastasis, is the main cause of death from solid cancers including bowel cancer, as once a cancer has spread from its original site to other organs it becomes much more difficult to cure.

Some treatments, such as stronger chemotherapy or more invasive surgery, may give a better chance of curing a cancer, but will also have a more significant impact on health and wellbeing. Someone who has a lower risk of metastasis may prefer milder treatment, but without being able to accurately predict a person’s risk it’s hard to help patients make informed decisions about this.

Finding a way to predict which patients are at higher risk of metastasis would help with making the best treatment decisions for each patient.

The science behind the project

Cancer cells undergoing metastasis show certain physical changes to help them spread. Professor Edwards and her team will be looking at markers of these changes in bowel cancer samples, from patients with early stage disease and patients with metastasis.

They will be looking to see if even at the early stages of bowel cancer there are changes in these markers, and if there’s any pattern between this and the clinical outcomes of the patients who gave the samples. If there is, it could be used to predict which patients are at higher risk of metastasis.

What difference will this project make?

Developing a clinical tool which can predict a patient's likelihood of their cancer spreading will support both patients and their clinicians when making decisions about the best therapy options, balancing side effects with treating the cancer.

The study is being done on the sort of tissue samples that are taken in biopsies or surgery, so adding this extra test probably wouldn’t require anything else from patients.

• Learn more about advanced bowel cancer
• Find out about treating patients where the cancer has spread
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