NTU scientists, Swedish institute discover new treatments for colon cancer

SINGAPORE'S NANYANG Technological University (NTU) scientists and Sweden's Karolinska Institutet have found new treatment options for colon cancer following a five-year multi-disciplinary study.

They have discovered that an existing chemotherapy drug used to treat leukaemia reduced colon tumour growth by half.

This discovery was published on Thursday in the prestigious academic journal Science Translational Medicine.

Colorectal cancer, or colon cancer, is one of the three most common cancers worldwide and the most common in Singapore.

Close to 95 per cent of colorectal cancers are from malignant tumours.

NTU on Thursday said there is no drug currently available to prevent the recurrence of tumours in the intestine after the cancerous tumours have been removed by surgery.

The study is supported by NTU's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, the Singapore Millennium Foundation, the National Cancer Centre Singapore, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society, Karolinska Institutet, the Tobias Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Torsten Söderberg Foundation.