Short Telomeres: Possible Colon Cancer Biomarker in People Under 50
A possible biomarker for colon cancer in people aged 50 and younger have been identified by Mayo Clinic researchers.
Colon cancer, also called colorectal cancer or bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix.
It’s the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, affecting nearly 145,000 people each year.
The first cases tend to appear in people in their 40s, but most patients tend to be in their mid 60s by the time they are diagnosed.
The said biomarker – shortened telomeres - is the same abnormality of chromosomes previously associated with diseases of aging.
The Mayo Clinic team led by Lisa Boardman, M.D., a specialist in gastrointestinal malignancies, investigated the structures inside of cells known as telomeres, which are the caps on the ends of chromosomes that keep chromosomes from unraveling.
Telomeres naturally shorten with aging and are associated with many diseases of aging, including cancer. Shortened telomeres have been found in colon cancer tumor cells, but this study links these telomeres to colon cancer.
We welcome anything that will detect the deadly colon cancer the earliest as possible.
Find more details from Mayo Clinic.
Tags: biomarker, short-telomeres.-colon-cancer, telomeresRelated Stories
POSTED IN: on cancer diagnostics, on colon cancer
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