The findings made possible the identification of individuals at the risk and living relatives of the Frys were able to avoid colon cancer, as doctor Neklason explains: “Our work demonstrates that colon cancer can be prevented with proper screening and care. Aggressive education and clinical intervention over a seven-year window in the Utah family has already prevented seven colon cancers”.

Researchers studied an estimate of 200 cases of the Frys descendants carrying the genetic mutation and were able to identify a gene called NAT1 which could be responsible for polyp growth and also found relations between dietary habits and general colon cancer risk, suggesting that aspirin, calcium, caffeine, fish-fats, bananas might have some protective effects whilst a high fat diet and obesity increases the risks. The team is currently working on a chemoprevention study which could make polyps shrink or recede entirely and finding more people with the AFAP mutation and helping them prevent colon cancer.

Neklason suggests that thousands more people could be at risk: “It could have an impact on a lot of people out there. We ran some numbers and if this mutation accounted for just 0.1 percent of all of the colon cancers in the U.S. that would equal 150 cases a year and cost about $7.5 million per year to treat.”

With more than 150,000 cases diagnosed in the US alone each year, colon cancer is the third most common cancer in this country. Whilst most cases don’t derive from known inherited mutations, for AFAP carriers an early diagnosis could prove to be their salvation.

Image: A Utah family from 1900, one of the many that appear in the Utah Population Database. This particular family did not carry the colon cancer gene. (Credit: Geri Mineau, University of Utah)

The study spanned over a median period of 8.2 years on two randomization groups and it showed that radical prostatectomy reduces the risk of prostate cancer mortality and the risk of developing metastases. After another 3 years of follow-up, Professor Lars Holmberg from Uppsala, Sweden reported:

“Key questions following our previous analyses of this trial, which were based on a median of 8.2 years of follow-up, include whether the absolute and relative benefits of surgical treatment would increase during longer follow-up, as we hypothesized; whether overall mortality would remain reduced; whether the benefit is larger among younger than among older patients; and whether histopathologic parameters can predict lethal outcome following surgery. We think the answer may well be affirmative.
One of the most striking results of this study was the fact that, in a follow-up of side effects, symptoms and quality of life within the randomised study, the symptom profile was different in the two randomisation groups but the overall rating of quality of life was similar. This may mean that the side effects of radical prostatectomy wear off, people get used to it perhaps.
Radical prostatectomy has changed the natural history of prostate cancer. Furthermore it is not sufficient to only to perform PSA tests in post-prostatectomy patients, we do need more tests.”