Cabrini breakthrough in bowel cancer research

Cabrini researchers are on the cusp of a breakthrough in the fight against bowel cancer.June is bowel cancer awareness month, and the team at Cabrini, in partnership with researchers at Monash University, are investigating how to find the right treatment for an individual patient’s cancer faster by growing copies of their tumours in the lab.

Cabrini Health head of surgery Professor Paul McMurrick said he and Cabrini Monash Senior Researcher Dr Rebekah Engel have been able to take a portion of the tumour from patients who have an aggressive subtype of bowel cancer and grown them into mini tumours, which allows the team to quickly determine how effective drugs are likely to be for each patient.

“The hope is that testing such treatments … will allow researchers and oncologists to trial an array of drug combinations and determine how well each individual patient’s cells respond before patients commence chemotherapy.“This information can then be used to prescribe effective care and avoid the side effects and costs associated with futile therapy.”For more information about Let's Beat Bowel Cancer please visit https://letsbeatbowelcancer.com.au/