Professor Mark Malloy
New hope for bowel cancer screening Bowel cancer is the third most common
follow-ups. If a patient has a positive stool test result, patients typically undergo a colonoscopy, where polyps — small growths that can become cancerous — are removed and assessed. But current guidelines as to when patient with polyps should come back for a “surveillance” colonoscopy are based on limited evidence. To address this, Marks team collected biopsies from polyps and nearby healthy tissue, identifying genes linked to higher risk. A new study is now underway to confirm whether these mutations can predict future polyp development. If successful, the research could lead to a test that allows doctors to find higher risk patients, allowing them to be seen more quickly and catch bowel cancers at the earliest stages. It is estimated 15,000 Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year. “If you vox popped people in the street, a lot of people would be touched by bowel cancer in some way, if not directly, they would know of someone in their circle” he said.
cancer in Australia, and the second deadliest. Alarmingly, rates are rising among people under 50, and researchers still don’t know why. Professor Mark Molloy, based in the Northern Sydney Local Health District, is leading efforts to shift the focus to prevention and one promising pathway is a blood test. Currently, the government-funded screening program relies on testing for blood in stool samples in people over 50 years of age. But Molloy said only around 40 per cent return the test, largely due to unease with people having to collect the sample themselves. Mark and his team are exploring whether a simple finger-prick blood test could replace it. Working with industry partners, Sangui Bio, they’ve analysed samples from 1,200 patients. “We can definitely see a signature in the blood from the finger prick sampling that’s linked to the presence of polyps and early cancers,” he said. Another project looks at optimising
SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS Share your news and achievements. Contact the Media and Communications team on 9463 1722 or email NSLHD-media@health.nsw.gov.au to submit your news.
xxxxxxx
WWW.NSLHD.HEALTH.NSW.GOV.AU
9
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online