New Genetic Research

There has been much in the world’s scientific press over the last couple of weeks concerning the results of work carried out by researchers in Thailand and Singapore.  This research into liver fluke (opisthorcis) induced CC has uncovered several genes that were not previously implicated in CC, and this is seen as an important step towards the development of diagnostic tools and drugs for the early detection and treatment of this devastating cancer.

These findings have raised the question as to whether this research will also have implications for sporadic CC, the most prevalent type in the western world.

The CC team at Imperial College are undertaking collaborative research work with teams in Thailand on urinary biomarkers, so AMMF put this question to Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson at Imperial, who commented as follows:

“The Thai group with whom we are collaborating have been involved in this research. The difficulty with genetic studies is that sometimes genes come up that we don’t really know the real function of – and it takes a long time to work out actually whether there is a role we can target for treatment (as I think will be the case here). However, the work is first class and hopefully there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

We are taking urine samples from the same patients to look for our urinary biomarkers and, with some careful work, we should be able to tie it in with the genetic studies.”

So this is certainly looking promising, and we will keep a close eye on future developments.

To read one of the reports on this research, click here

Genetic implications in cholangiocarcinoma

Research shows genetic implications in liver fluke related cholangiocarcinoma

 

 

 

The original study report is published in Nature Genetics,  entitled  “Exome sequencing of liver fluke-associated cholangiocarcinoma”, but is not free to read in full.  However, for those who are interested in reading this work, click here

Nature Genetics Article

Exome sequencing of liver fluke-associated cholangiocarcinoma/Nature Genetics May 2012

 

28.05.2012