Today should be Sid Quorn's birthday. Sadly he passed away, leaving behind his lovely daughter, Hayley. Hayley is one of the funniest, kindest and most truest friends I have. Always ready to help anyone, always with something funny to say, always ready to put others before herself. Your dad would be really proud of you Hayley! I miss you brightening up my daily life!! Today's post is dedicated to the two of you xxx
Sadly poor Sid had cancer in a lot of places but Hayley did tell me that one place he had it was in the colon so today I'm going to explain the progress being made in the fight against colon (bowel) cancer.
Cancer of the bowel is the third most common cancer type in the UK, with more then 41,000 people diagnosed every day. It kills around 16,000 people per year in the UK. Thanks to advancements in research, half of those diagnosed with bowel cancer today will survive for at least ten years after the diagnosis. The work of CRUK has played a huge role in this.
Making a Difference:
So far CRUK has played a huge role in researching ways to prevent, diagnosis and treat bowel cancer:
*Faulty genes, including the APC gene, which are responsible for bowel cancers running in families have been discovered and this has also led to researchers finding the subtle genetic variations that increase the bowel cancer risk in the general population.
*There was a campaign for the introduction of a bowel screening programme in the UK which saves thousands of lives every year
*Major clinical trials have been funded to change the way those with advanced bowel cancer are treated.
*CRUK helped fund the EPIC, the largest ever study into diet and cancer. This discovered that a diet containing a high amount of red and processed meat, as well as high alcohol consumption, increases your bowel cancer risk. It also discovered that a diet containing lots of high fibre food and lots of physical activity can reduce your bowel cancer risk.
*CRUK helped develop and test many of the drugs used to treat bowel cancer including
-Oxaliplatin
-Irinotecan
-Capecitabine
-Raltitrexed
-Fluorouracil
*CRUK also helped fund the groundbreaking trial of an alternative bowel screening programme which is called a Bowel Scope. This could prevent a third of all bowel cancer cases.
Current Research into Bowel Cancer
Our donations to CRUK currently help fund a number of research projects into bowel cancer. There are currently around fourteen separate research studies into bowel cancer taking place in CRUK labs including:
*Dr Farhat Din is a Clinician Scientist with CRUK and hold a prestigious CRUK Fellowship which allows her to research how aspirin can reduce the risk of bowel cancer. This important work could lead to better prevention strategies in the future and will hopefully discover the best way to use aspirin to prevent bowel cancer.
*Labs in Oxford, London, Edinburgh and Cambridge are currently tracking down the gene faults linked with bowel cancer. This will hopefully lead to a more personalised screening process and treatment.
*The Beatson Institute, Glasgow, is home to Dr Own Sansom who is currently tracking the changes that turn healthy bowel cells into cancerous ones. This important work will hopefully show us how the disease develops and how to treat it in the future.
*Prof Dion Morton is running a major clinical trial in Birmingham which is testing whether chemotherapy before surgery can shrink the tumour, making it easier to remove and reducing the risk of it coming back in the future.
*Christine Campbell is in Edinburgh researching how we can increase the amount of people having bowel screening, which has the potential to save lives by diagnosing bowel cancer in the early stages when it is more curable.
You can find out about even more research projects into bowel cancer at http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/science/research/who-and-what-we-fund/researchbycancertype/bowelresearch_new/
In celebration of Sid and Hayley I'll be making a little donation to one of these research projects. That means that donation will directly affect research into bowel cancer in Sid's memory. Hopefully this means his memory will help save someone else in the future. I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned that you can donate money to a specific research project, or a specific type of cancer, when donating to CRUK. All you have to do is visit the MyProjects page and pick the project you identify most with. http://myprojects.cancerresearchuk.org/projects/p/category/Bowel%20cancer
To read more of my bowel cancer related posts please visit
Thinking of you today my lovely Hayley, and really looking forward to seeing you next month!!! Lots of love xxxx
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