Bowel cancer (also known as colorectal cancer) affects 15,500 men and women in Australia each year.
The good news is the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program is helping reduce the burden of bowel cancer.
Sadly though, half of all bowel cancer diagnoses will spread to the liver, where it is often unresponsive to current treatments. That is why more research is needed to tackle this deadly disease.
Bowel Cancer Support
Fast-tracking the development of a novel probiotic pill to diagnose bowel cancer.Â
Researcher
Associate Professor Susan Woods hopes the approach can improve participation rates in bowel cancer screening programs and increase the number of bowel cancers that are detected early.
Introducing a noval faecal test to determine which individuals should be prioritised for urgent colonoscopy.
Researcher
Associate Professor Erin Symonds is leading this project, with the aim that the test (different to the at-home faecal tests) can better triage patients at higher risk of bowel cancer.
Trialling a new approach to treating aggressive bowel cancer called personalised Total Neoadjuvant Therapy (pTNT) to improve outcomes for high risk patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Researcher
Bowel cancer surgeon Associate Professor Tarik Sammour (middle) and his team are helping patients avoid debilitating surgery with their new approach to bowel cancer treatment.
Investigating a protein called ROCK which has been found to promote the spread of bowel cancer, and then finding ways to inhibit the cancer’s growth.
Researcher
Associate Professor Michael Samuel is learning more about ROCK-induced tumour progression, with the hope that we can slow down and even beat bowel cancer for good.
Investigating the increased prevalence of bowel cancer in adults under 50 and its links to Type 2 diabetes.
Researcher
Associate Professor Joanne Young is investigating the premise that people with Type 2 diabetes are 30-40% more likely than the general population to develop bowel cancer, with those under 50 at higher risk again.
Building a biobank of liver metastatic bowel cancer tissue to analyse and identify biomarkers to help predict whether bowel cancer is likely to spread.
Researcher
Dr Kevin Fenix has established the South Australian Liver Tissue (SALT) biobank to aid this important research.
Increasing awareness in the community of the importance of taking a bowel cancer screening test by funding the Jodi Lee Foundation’s awareness campaign and workplace prevention program.
If caught early, bowel cancer has a survival rate of over 90%, which is why free screening is vital.
Developing a Computer Aided Diagnostic (CAD) system to provide a detailed analysis in real time of polyps found during a colonoscopy, to avoid the time delay of sending specimens to the lab.
Researcher
Gastroenterologist Professor Raj Singh is building the CAD system using Artificial Intelligence with the aim of achieving more than 95% accuracy, allowing specialists to determine the best intervention immediately.
