Category: Colorectal Cancer

According to the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), colonoscopy remains the most effective screening option for colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy is widely accepted as the best method for colon cancer screening because it allows the trained physician to thoroughly evaluate the entire colon.

Colorectal cancer is one of the deadliest but most preventable causes of death in the United States. The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute supports clinically proven technologies that increase the number of patients who are screened for the disease.At the American College of Radiology Imaging Network meeting, researchers presented results from the National CT Colonography Trial.

Two studies in the October issue of the journal Gastroenterology may help in refining recommendations for the use of colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer.One study reports that patients with large polyps or adenomas — pre-cancerous growths that may develop into colorectal cancers — on initial colonoscopy may need more frequent follow-up, while those with only a few small polyps can be screened less often.

The first step in the development of colon cancer is the formation of benign tumours, called adenomas, in the intestine. Over time, these tumours may progress to produce colon cancer if they undergo a series of mutations and genetic alterations.

Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart failure benefit just as much from adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery for colon cancer than patients without these conditions - although they are less likely to receive this extra treatment, according to an analysis of drug treatment and outcomes in patients with colon cancer, published in Cancer this month.

New research has yielded a clearer picture of which biomarkers could help doctors more precisely target the treatment of colon cancer, bringing closer the day when patients who will not benefit from chemotherapy are spared it, while those that will, get the more aggressive treatment they need.

Data presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Oncology (ECCO) demonstrate that a novel combination regimen based on Merck Serono’s oral 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) therapy UFT® (tegafur-uracil) plus leucovorin (LV) results in a high response rate in the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Researchers in The Netherlands have developed a method of accurately predicting which patients with colon cancer are most likely to have their disease recur after surgery and who would, therefore, be likely to benefit from additional chemotherapy.

Eating fruits and vegetables was not strongly associated with decreased colon cancer risk, according to a study published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.Several studies have examined the relationship between colon cancer and fruit and vegetable intake, but the results have been inconsistent. A team of researchers led by Anita Koushik, Ph.D.

An under-used colon cancer screening test now available in the U.S. effectively detects colorectal cancer and may help to improve colon cancer screening rates, according to investigators at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. The study appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI).