Trial of Test to Detect Colon Cancer Spread

A test for a protein expressed only by intestinal cells and colorectal cancer cells may aid the detection of the spread of colon cancer, according to researchers at Jefferson Medical College and Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, PA, USA). Currently, the test is used to detect a protein, guanylyl cyclase C (GCC), that causes traveler's diarrhea.

Most colorectal cancers originate in the cells that line the intestine, cells that normally make GCC. When the cells become cancerous, they continue to make GCC. The researchers plan to use a two-fold approach in the trial. First, they will use an amplification technique called RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) analysis to magnify the presence of cancer cells compared to normal cells and then couple it with a test for GCC, which they hope will be a very specific marker for cancer.

GCC appears to be very specific to colon cancer cells outside the intestine. By combining the marker with the amplification technique, which can detect one cancer cell in 10 million cells, researchers believe they may have a very specific and sensitive way to detect metastatic colon cancer cells in the lymph nodes of patients undergoing colorectal cancer staging. In a previous trial, pathologists found GCC present in every patient whose cancer had returned, although they had been told they had no signs of cancer in their lymph nodes.

"We hope to use this new molecular technique to improve the accuracy of colorectal cancer staging so that more people can receive chemotherapy and can benefit from it,” said Scott Waldman, M.D., professor of medicine at Jefferson Medical College, who is leading the trial.




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