An exciting breakthrough in the battle to beat bowel cancer has brought joy to pals of Dame Deborah James.
The campaigner, 40, died in June this year after raising a whopping £7million for research into treating cancer through her Bowelbabe Fund.
Now a team of experts funded by Cancer Research UK – which has received cash from the Bowelbabe pot – has found a way to stop late-stage bowel cancer growing.
Steve Bland, husband of Deborah’s You, Me and the Big C podcast co-host Rachael, said Deborah would have been “thrilled” by the encouraging news.
He added: “It’s extraordinary what’s happening in the world of cancer and the speed at which research is moving.
“The passion and drive that people have to make the lives of cancer patients better is amazing. I’m sure this is something Deb would have been thrilled about.
“Deb did so much and she was so passionate about research but we won’t get to see the impact of the fundraising she did for decades to come.”
The Cancer Research UK funding for the study was allocated several years ago but the Bowelbabe Fund is expected to help future testing of this kind.
A team led by Dr Kevin Myant has been able to block the messages telling cancer to grow, by targeting a specific gene that leaves healthy cells unaffected.
Dr Myant, based at the University of Edinburgh, said the new find could change how bowel cancer is treated in future. He said: “If we can stop splicing from being hijacked, we can stop bowel cancer from growing and make it more vulnerable to treatment.
“When we grew bowel cancer cells in the lab and blocked a gene which the cells need to run splicing, they stopped growing. When we blocked the same gene in normal bowel cells, they grew normally. There is an urgent need for better treatments for bowel cancer, particularly where it is caught at a later stage. This research could open up new approaches to treating bowel cancer in the future.”
Each year in the UK about 43,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer and, over the past 10 years, the bowel cancer incidence rate in under 50s has increased by 32%.
A Cancer Research UK spokesman said: “The Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK will support causes and projects that Deborah was passionate about. These include funding clinical trials and research into personalised medicine that could result in new treatments for cancer patients.”
