Too many people avoid colonoscopy.  Too invasive, they say.  Too scary, too risky.

There may be an answer for them in an improved stool test that looks for DNA that is changed in both colorectal cancer and some precancerous polyps.

Of course, if the stool test identifies possible polyps or cancer, a colonoscopy is critical to evaluate the findings and remove polyps.

The test that looks for methylated DNA in human feces, found 85 percent of cancers and 64 percent of large adenomas.  There were few false positives.  Only one in ten follow-up colonoscopies didn’t confirm cancer or adenomas. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients, care partners, survivors, advocates . . . everyone.  It’s Our Time!

Watch a video about the promise of cancer research — and its urgency — from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Dr. Chou discussing his poster at AACR

Both Dr. Jeffrey Chou and Dr. Yaguang Xi presented research posters at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Washington this week.

Dr. Chou is the 2009 Lisa Dubow Research Fellow, and Dr. Xi received the award in 2008.

Dr. Xi’s research found a micro-RNA (miRNA) that made colorectal cancer cells more sensitive to 5-FU and also predicted which cells, and potentially which patients, response best to treatment with 5-FU.

Dr. Chou studied whether treating colorectal cancer cells with decitabine (DAC) could produce cancer-testis antigen in the cells and make them sensitive to immunotherapy. Read the rest of this entry »

C3 Board Chair Nancy Roach and C3 staffer Kate Murphy and were part of the Scientist-Survivor Program at the American Association for Cancer Research 101st Annual Meeting in Washington this week.

Nancy was a mentor for a group of patient advocates who were attending AACR .  For Kate this was a third AACR Annual Meeting.  She presented a poster about C3 and its work.

This year’s meeting theme Conquering Cancer Through Discovery Research led to more than 700 presentations and 6,500 posters presenting key basic and translational research. Read the rest of this entry »

Rona Yaeger MD

Rona Yaeger, MD is the 2010 Lisa Dubow Research Fellow, receiving the 2010 American Association for Cancer Research – Colorectal Cancer Coalition Fellows Grant.

The Award will be made tonight at a special dinner in honor of AACR Fellows Fund grantees.

Dr. Yaeger is from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.  Her grant research will focus on inhibiting the AKT pathway in colorectal cancer cells. Read the rest of this entry »