News Release

National Cancer Institute awards cancer center $4.5 million for colon cancer research

Grant and Award Announcement

Case Western Reserve University

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently awarded a $4.5 million grant to researchers at the cancer center at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC). The five-year grant will support a project to uncover a new genetic link in the development of colon cancer.

In providing the funding, the NCI noted the strength and experience of the research team in colorectal cancer genetics research. The team is directed by Sanford Markowitz, the Frances Wragg Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics at CWRU and associate investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The new award allows researchers to continue a project begun three years ago that has already demonstrated success in identifying individuals at risk for developing colon cancer and pre-cancerous colon polyps.

In 1997, the research team received $500,000 from NCI to launch the Colon Cancer Sibling Study which provided free screening for the brothers and sisters of people who, before the age of 65, either developed colon cancer or had colon polyps. More than 280 families in northern Ohio participated in the study, with 67 of those families identified as very high risk.

"We were able to identify 20 siblings who had colon polyps that are precursors to cancer, and two individuals whose polyps showed early changes of colon cancer," said Markowitz, who is an oncologist at UHC. "This is more evidence that the whole family is at risk once a family member is found to have polyps or cancer."

Markowitz said the average age of the patients identified in the earlier study to have polyps or cancer was 50. The two patients with early colon cancer were identified before the cancer had infiltrated the colon wall. In such cases, surgical removal of the tumor is considered curative.

The goal of the new funding is to screen more families, and identify and collect DNA from 300 pairs of siblings in which two members of each family have developed colon polyps or cancer by age 65 or younger.

Using blood samples from these sibling pairs, the team will examine the entire human genome in search of the common genetic mutation that makes them vulnerable to develop what are called adenomatous polyps. All participants in the Sibling Study will have their blood drawn and analyzed by molecular biologists and geneticists who will be looking for a susceptibility gene.

Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among Americans. Studies have shown that nearly 30 percent of adults over age 50 have non-symptomatic polyps in the colon that can develop into malignant cancers. Studies also suggest that siblings of individuals with colon polyps or cancer have more than triple the average risk for developing colon cancer themselves.

The most recent NCI award supports the work of physicians and scientists from the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Genetics, Medicine (Divisions of Oncology and Gastroenterology), and Pathology at CWRU and UHC.

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For more information about the study, and to determine if you are eligible to participate in free colon cancer screenings as part of this study, call the University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center Information Service at 216-844-5432.


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