Immune system find prompts bowel cancer breakthrough

Scientists are hoping a breakthrough in the understanding of bowel cancer will lead to new treatments.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Institute have discovered the answer as to why the immune system of patients ignores the disease.

Until now, it has not been known how cancer blinds the immune system to the disease, rendering it unable to destroy it.

Lead researcher, Dr Seth Coffelt, said “Normally, immune cells keep things as they should be, patrolling the bowel like security guards, tackling any harmful bacteria and keeping the gut healthy.

“However, when cells in the bowel become cancerous, they fire these ‘security guards’ and all the methods these immune cells use to talk to each other to co-ordinate an immune response no longer get produced.

“Cancer doesn’t want immune cells recognising them as a threat, so they manipulate the immune cells so they can’t see the threat and simply pass on by leaving the cancer to do its damage.”

The discovery opens the door to potentially preventing or reversing this process, allowing the immune system to see the bowel cancer cells and stop then from growing and multiplying.

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK, with around 16,800 deaths in the country every year.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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