New Service for
TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com readers...roll mouse over, click on
highlighted links in stories to review items from Amazon
Study points to a possible biomarker for
Colon Cancer in people 50 and under
Newswise — An abnormality of chromosomes
long associated with diseases of aging has,
for the first time, been linked to colon
cancer in people 50 years old and younger,
an age group usually considered young for
this disease.
The finding may provide an early alert for
younger patients with colon cancer and could
prompt new research into colon cancer
prevention and treatment strategies, say
Mayo Clinic researchers.
The Mayo Clinic team led by Lisa Boardman,
M.D., a specialist in gastrointestinal
malignancies, investigated the structures
inside of cells known as telomeres, which
are the caps on the ends of chromosomes that
keep chromosomes from unraveling.
Telomeres naturally shorten with aging and
are associated with many diseases of aging,
including cancer. Shortened telomeres have
been found in colon cancer tumor cells, but
this study links these telomeres to colon
cancer.
Dr. Boardman and an interdisciplinary group
of researchers examined the DNA in blood
samples of 114 colon cancer patients 50
years old and younger and 98 people with no
history of cancer.
They found that the colon cancer patients
had abnormal telomeres that were unusually
short, particularly for a group of patients
considered young for colon cancer: patients
in the study were about 15 years younger
than the average age of patients with colon
cancer. In addition, colon cancer in this
younger group affected men more often than
women.
Colon cancer, also called colorectal cancer
or bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths
in the colon, rectum and appendix. It’s the
second leading cause of cancer death in the
United States, affecting nearly 145,000
people each year. The first cases tend to
appear in people in their 40s, but most
patients tend to be in their mid 60s by the
time they are diagnosed.
Each year about 25,000 people 50 years old
or younger are diagnosed with colon cancer,
accounting for up to 17 percent of all cases
which could potentially be affected by the
outcomes of this study. Colon cancer is
among the top 10 cancers to affect people
between 20 to 49 years old, the authors
report.
Unfortunately, young people diagnosed with
colon cancer are more likely to be in the
later stage of the disease. This group also
is more likely to develop rectal cancer as
compared to older patients. This information
led researchers to suspect that colon cancer
in younger people is biologically distinct
from colon cancer in older patients.
To researchers, this association between
cancer and prematurely short telomeres
raises the possibility of one day using
telomere length as a biomarker of cancer or
an early warning system that can alert
physicians to pre-symptomatic cancerous
changes that are underway.
“Finding this association between colon
cancer patients and increased telomere
shortening is exciting because, if
validated, it really opens up new
possibilities for new treatment strategies.
For example, we know that telomere length
can be repaired, so we want to look at
telomere maintenance genes which, when
defective, might very well contribute to
cancer,” she said.
Researchers intend to look at other
associations that shorten telomere length.
These include environmental factors, such as
increased body mass index and smoking.
“We know that cancer is a disease of the
environment and genes, both of which affect
telomeres. If we can understand how this
happens, it could lead us to develop
therapies to reverse premature telomere
shortening, stall it or protect the
telomeres from destructive influences in the
first place,” Dr. Boardman says.
This study is funded by the National Cancer
Institute.
The study’s authors also include: Douglas
Riegert-Johnson, M.D.; Ruth Ann Johnson;
Stephen Thibodeau, Ph.D.; Susan Slager,
Ph.D.; Sara Achenbach; and Gloria Petersen,
Ph.D.; all of Mayo Clinic.
...
...
...