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Beating bowel cancer together

Development of a non-invasive diagnostic tool for early-detection of bowel cancer

Lead researcher: Professor Nathalie Juge

Location: Quadram Institute Bioscience and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital

Grant award: £25,000

Professor Nathalie Juge and her team are investigating if a new blood test could be used, alongside the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), to give more accurate detection of bowel cancer.

The challenge

FIT is used in bowel screening and by doctors if someone has symptoms that need further investigation. It detects traces of blood in poo which can be a sign of a cancer or a pre-cancerous growth in the bowel.

However, sometimes FIT gives the wrong result. Someone without bowel cancer may get a positive result and have an unnecessary colonoscopy, while someone with bowel cancer may get a negative result, delaying their diagnosis.

The science behind the project

A particular type of bacterium which is found in the bowel is known to increase bowel cancer risk and is present at higher levels in cancerous tissues. Professor Juge’s team previously showed that it interacts with a protein on immune cells.  Although the bacterium and the protein are in the bowel, there are markers of their presence in the blood and these markers are raised in people with bowel cancer.

This study will test how well these blood markers identify bowel cancer, using donated blood samples from people having a colonoscopy after an abnormal FIT result.

What difference will this project make?

Improving the accuracy of FIT by combining it with a simple blood test will benefit both patients and clinicians, by reducing the number of incorrect FIT results that lead down the wrong pathway. A false negative FIT result can give faulty reassurance and delay diagnosis of bowel cancer with potential impact on the chances of cure, while a false positive result can cause anxiety and mean patients undergo an unnecessary procedure, putting extra burden on colonoscopy services. In the longer term this research has potential to help improve our national bowel cancer screening programme.

 

A headshot of Professor Nathalie Juge smiling

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