Early colon cancer detector

John23 said:

Newsworthy

There's more here: CTV.ca News

========================================
CTV.ca News Staff Date: Sun. May. 8 2011 6:21 PM ET

A made-in-Canada urine test appears to be able to spot the signs
of early colorectal cancer, and might eventually do away with
less appealing test methods.

The urine test is based on "metabolomics," which is the analysis
of the chemical fingerprints left by cellular processes in the
body, including the changes of normal cells into cancer cells.

It works by identifying cancer cell waste products that are then
excreted into the urine by small polyps and tumours.

If the test proves accurate, researchers hope it could one day
change the way patients are screened for colorectal cancer and
maybe other cancers as well.

Paul Sharp has survived colon cancer, but only because his father
died of it. After his father passed away, he had a colonoscopy
eight months later.

"They found I had cancer. I went for surgery four days later," he
remembers.

Sharp is now one of over 1,200 patients who donated a urine
sample to help University of Alberta doctors develop what could
be the simplest screening test for this deadly cancer.

"Our test is like a fingerprint. It can tell you what those waste
products are and then allows us to predict whether you have a
polyp or not or whether you have colon cancer," says one of the
test's developers, Dr. Richard Fedorak of the University of
Alberta's Faculty of Medicine.

Fedorak and his colleagues have released a study which looked at
354 healthy people with normal colonoscopies provide urine
samples, as well as 110 people with benign, "hyperplastic" colon
polyps, which usually don't develop into cancer and 243 with
‘adenomatous" polyps, which are considered pre-cancerous growths
that could become cancerous.

The urine lab test was over 80 per cent effective at spotting the
existing cancer as well as pre-cancerous growths, a success rate
that pleased the scientists.

"So if we can find the growth or the cancer at these early stages
we can prevent or cure the cancer before it's too late," says
Fedorak's fellow researcher, Dr. Haili Wang.

Many provinces already offer patients over the age of 50 a fecal
occult blood test, a test that looks for blood in stool and that
requires patients to test their own stool at home with a test
kit. Fewer than 20 per cent of people offered the test use it.
And it only finds cancer about 30 per cent of the time.

A simpler and possibly more accurate urine test might encourage
more patients to get checked out.

"This way, we are thinking of the patients first. What's easiest
for the patients," says Dr. Clarence Wong, an oncologist with the
Alberta Colon Cancer Screening Program.

"When they come in, if they are more compliant and are more
willing to do the test, we will save more lives because we are
making it easier for them."

The test likely wouldn't replace colonoscopies, which are still
considered the definitive tests for colon cancer- but it would
help doctors decide who should get the more invasive test to find
patients before their cancer grows and spreads.

CTV.ca News
========================================

Re:
"It works by identifying cancer cell waste products that are then
excreted into the urine by small polyps and tumours. "

So therefore, individual cancer cells will remain undetected.....?

If they can produce a medication that will enable our immune system
to detect individual cells and remove them the way it was intended
to remove "bad cells", we wouldn't need "early testing" that only leads
to early starting of chemical treatments that do nothing to individual,
lone cancer cells.

I want a damned cure!

Best hopes for us all!

John

John23 said:

Newsworthy

There's more here: CTV.ca News

========================================
CTV.ca News Staff Date: Sun. May. 8 2011 6:21 PM ET

A made-in-Canada urine test appears to be able to spot the signs
of early colorectal cancer, and might eventually do away with
less appealing test methods.

The urine test is based on "metabolomics," which is the analysis
of the chemical fingerprints left by cellular processes in the
body, including the changes of normal cells into cancer cells.

It works by identifying cancer cell waste products that are then
excreted into the urine by small polyps and tumours.

If the test proves accurate, researchers hope it could one day
change the way patients are screened for colorectal cancer and
maybe other cancers as well.

Paul Sharp has survived colon cancer, but only because his father
died of it. After his father passed away, he had a colonoscopy
eight months later.

"They found I had cancer. I went for surgery four days later," he
remembers.

Sharp is now one of over 1,200 patients who donated a urine
sample to help University of Alberta doctors develop what could
be the simplest screening test for this deadly cancer.

"Our test is like a fingerprint. It can tell you what those waste
products are and then allows us to predict whether you have a
polyp or not or whether you have colon cancer," says one of the
test's developers, Dr. Richard Fedorak of the University of
Alberta's Faculty of Medicine.

Fedorak and his colleagues have released a study which looked at
354 healthy people with normal colonoscopies provide urine
samples, as well as 110 people with benign, "hyperplastic" colon
polyps, which usually don't develop into cancer and 243 with
‘adenomatous" polyps, which are considered pre-cancerous growths
that could become cancerous.

The urine lab test was over 80 per cent effective at spotting the
existing cancer as well as pre-cancerous growths, a success rate
that pleased the scientists.

"So if we can find the growth or the cancer at these early stages
we can prevent or cure the cancer before it's too late," says
Fedorak's fellow researcher, Dr. Haili Wang.

Many provinces already offer patients over the age of 50 a fecal
occult blood test, a test that looks for blood in stool and that
requires patients to test their own stool at home with a test
kit. Fewer than 20 per cent of people offered the test use it.
And it only finds cancer about 30 per cent of the time.

A simpler and possibly more accurate urine test might encourage
more patients to get checked out.

"This way, we are thinking of the patients first. What's easiest
for the patients," says Dr. Clarence Wong, an oncologist with the
Alberta Colon Cancer Screening Program.

"When they come in, if they are more compliant and are more
willing to do the test, we will save more lives because we are
making it easier for them."

The test likely wouldn't replace colonoscopies, which are still
considered the definitive tests for colon cancer- but it would
help doctors decide who should get the more invasive test to find
patients before their cancer grows and spreads.

CTV.ca News
========================================

Re:
"It works by identifying cancer cell waste products that are then
excreted into the urine by small polyps and tumours. "

So therefore, individual cancer cells will remain undetected.....?

If they can produce a medication that will enable our immune system
to detect individual cells and remove them the way it was intended
to remove "bad cells", we wouldn't need "early testing" that only leads
to early starting of chemical treatments that do nothing to individual,
lone cancer cells.

I want a damned cure!

Best hopes for us all!

John