University of Otago researchers have made a "significant development" in the fight against New Zealand’s second-deadliest cancer that could allow it to be detected and treated much earlier.
The research has identified what causes bowel cancer to spread to the liver.
Associate Prof Aniruddha Chatterjee, Dr Euan Rodger and Dr Rachel Purcell had their findings published in iScience, and were excited to see what the future held in store for their research.
"One is detecting early, secondly is treatment and monitoring decisions which can have very significant impacts.
"It all has tremendous potential, but it’s still early days and I’m sure there will be a lot more exciting updates to come in the field going forward."
Prof Chatterjee said the main cause of cancer-related deaths was metastasis, which refers to the spread of tumours to distant organs.
Cancer cells did this by rewriting the instruction code of DNA so they could spread more widely than the body allowed.
By measuring fluctuations of methylation, the chemical that controlled how DNA behaved in a cell, scientists could detect when cancers were in the process of altering their genetic restrictions.
Dr Rodger said this was as simple as looking for abnormalities in the epigenetic code; the "instruction manual" of how DNA behaved.
"It all comes down to the idea that DNA is a code. On top of that code you have the epigenetic code," Dr Rodger said.
"In normal cells that looks a specific way, but in the case of cancer and metastasis, that is altered to be different than how it was originally."
Prof Chatterjee said New Zealand had the highest rates of bowel cancer, 1200 people dying from it every year.
People whose bowel cancer had spread to their liver had a survival rate of five years, which was very low.
A very high proportion of bowel cancer spread to the liver, but could also reach the lymph nodes, bones and even the brain, he said.
While their research only examined how bowel cancer spread to the liver, it could be expanded to other cancer types such as lung and prostate because the type of epigenetic changes were universal to all cancers, Dr Rodger said.
Their research would let them detect when cancer was spreading much earlier, and give them the tools for better patient management strategy.
They were even examining the use of blood-based tests for cancer treatment rather than tissue samples.
"I think we are in the beginning of a very emerging area, and there is a lot more work to be done," he said.
"Our work will open new avenues for understanding why cancer cells become so aggressive and will lead to better outcome prediction and new targets to treat these tumours in the future."
Prof Chatterjee and Dr Rodger will continue their research with the aid of funding from the Health Research Council and the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi Marsden Fund.
tim.scott@odt.co.nz , PIJF cadet reporter
