Gene mutation warns of colon cancer:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Analysing faecal DNA for a mutation in the BAT26 gene could help doctors reliably and non-invasively identify patients with proximal colon tumours, according to US researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Those tumours are difficult to detect as they are further from the anus, say the researchers, whose study revealed that 18 of 46 patients with proximal colon cancer harboured BAT26 mutations in their tumours, 94% of which were identifiable using faecal DNA analysis. The findings appear in the Lancet (February 2).