Just as the great “Big Bang” gave birth to the universe, scientists have discovered that bowel cancer has its own “Big Bang moment” — a defining point that shapes how a tumour grows and how it responds to treatment.
This finding comes from a new study by The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, which has illuminated the earliest stages of cancer development and its complex relationship with the immune system.
🔬 How Cancer Cells Slip Past the Immune System
Researchers found that the turning point for bowel cancer occurs when cancer cells learn to evade the immune system — by altering the very genes that would normally expose them to immune attack.
This process, known as immune escape, allows cancer to develop quietly, undetected by the body’s defence mechanisms.
Once a tumour achieves this ability, scientists noticed that later changes in its interaction with the immune system are minimal, suggesting that the way the disease begins largely determines how it will progress. 🌱
💡 A New Direction for Immunotherapy
These insights may help doctors identify which patients are most likely to benefit from immunotherapy — treatments that boost the immune system’s natural ability to fight cancer.
Only about 15 percent of bowel-cancer patients respond well to immunotherapy, so understanding these early mechanisms could help extend its benefits to more people.
Meanwhile, therapeutic vaccines now being tested aim to train the immune system to recognise and destroy cancer cells that re-emerge after initial treatment.
In the future, combining immunotherapy with drugs that influence epigenetic processes — the way DNA instructions are read — may greatly enhance treatment effectiveness. 💡
🧬 Some Tumours Are “Born” to Be Aggressive
According to Professor Trevor Graham, Director of the Centre for Evolution and Cancer at ICR:
“Some forms of bowel cancer are ‘born to be aggressive.’
Their relationship with the immune system is established from the very start.
If we can understand and target that relationship early, treatment is far more likely to succeed.”
He adds that as medicine becomes increasingly personalised, understanding how tumours evolve is vital for choosing the right therapy for each patient. 🌿
🧠 Why the Earliest Stages Matter
Dr Catherine Elliott, Director of Research at Cancer Research UK, stressed that grasping these early stages is essential to defeating cancer completely:
“No matter how different tumours may appear, a single critical moment at their origin can determine how the disease unfolds.
This study helps explain why immunotherapy works so well for some patients — and not for others.”
Tom Collins, of the Wellcome Trust, described the research as an important step toward more precise and effective treatments:
“Studying cancer at this molecular level gives us deep insight into how bowel cancer begins and evolves — paving the way for truly personalised care.” 🌟
📚 Source
This article was adapted, and cited from the original publication by
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR):
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