Embedded Files
The critical need for bowel cancer research
The critical need for bowel cancer research
Bowel cancer is the 4th most common cancer in the UK, and the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths, meaning it places an enormous burden on patients, families, and the NHS.
When caught early, it is very treatable with a good chance of patients surviving for 5 years or more. However, in more advanced stages it is deadly, with fewer than 10% of patients surviving for 5 years once it has spread to other parts of the body (metastasis). Screening to catch it as early as possible is therefore crucial.
Most bowel cancer diagnoses occur in people over the age of 50, however there has been a worrying rise in cases in younger people in recent years. The reasons for this are not clear. Even when the cancer is surgically removed, it can bounce back in around 30% of patients, another area where more research is desperately needed.
Our team in Sheffield tries to understand how bowel cancer progresses, with the aim of this eventually being able to inform better management and treatment. Our diverse range of research projects covers analysis of tissue structure, how bowel cancer cells communicate to drive their growth and spread, how this communication may even involve the bacteria that live in our guts, the potential for better blood-based markers indicating disease stage, and even novel new drug delivery systems. You can find out more in our "how it works" pages.
SHEBCOR focusses on the bowel cancer tumour microenvironment
SHEBCOR focusses on the bowel cancer tumour microenvironment
The tumour microenvironment (or TME) refers to the complex, inter-connected network of cells and tissue components that support bowel cancers to develop and grow.
You can see this complexity from this schematic image which shows cancer cells (brown) interacting with many other cells and the fibrous "extracellular matrix" as it develops in the bowel and progresses towards invading into surrounding tissue and other parts of the body.
This is taken from a review of ours published in 2020 during Covid lockdown, and illustrated by our alumni Sonia, who is now a professional illustrator
We study the TME using bowel cancer models grown in the lab
We study the TME using bowel cancer models grown in the lab
We use a range of cancer cells and normal cells to recreate how cancer communicates with the TME as it grows and invades into the bowel (A). We use 3-dimensional gel models to mimic how bowel cancer grows in the body (B). We use patient biopsies taken after surgery to generate mini-tumours in the lab which we call tumoroids (C). All of these tools aim to mimic how bowel cancer grows in the body so that we can explore how it happens and how to stop it.
This work is all possible thanks to the incredible support of our funders, we can't do this without them.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse