Researchers close in on new way to treat aggressive bowel cancers

Targeting a "previously unappreciated" protein could lead to a treatment for aggressive bowel cancers, US researchers have found.
The finding, published in the journal Cell, could apply to up to a quarter of people who develop the disease.
But UK experts warned that, while the research was exciting, drugs targeting TAK1 - previously linked to inflammation - could be some years away.
Two genes - APC and KRAS - drive most bowel cancers. Around eight out of ten bowel cancers carries a faulty APC gene, whereas about half have a faulty KRAS gene.
Cancers in which both of these genes are defective are generally hardest to treat, and new-generation targeted treatments like cetuximab tend not to work in these patients.

Read more - http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/cancernews/2012-02-17-Researchers-close-in-on-new-way-to-treat-aggressive-bowel-cancers