BOSTON, Mass. — Scientists in Boston say they have found new biological hints about why colorectal cancer tends to be harder to beat in younger adults, a question that has puzzled doctors as cases among people under 50 have climbed.
The work comes from a team drawn from the Broad Institute, Mass General Brigham, Dana-Farber and Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation. Their findings were published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine.
The group examined 189 tumors from patients who ranged in age from their 20s to their 90s. Fifty-four of those patients were diagnosed before turning 50. By tracking gene activity across hundreds of thousands of individual cells, the team built what researchers call a single cell atlas, the largest of its kind for this cancer.
In the most common subtype, tumors from younger patients held a larger share of connective and supporting cells compared with cancer cells, a pattern that has been tied to chemotherapy resistance in other solid tumors. The researchers also saw stronger signaling between cells that can help a tumor push into nearby tissue, along with more activity from long non-coding RNAs.
Kimmie Ng, who directs the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber, has said the youngest patients, those under 35, can fare worse than older patients even with more aggressive treatment and better overall health. They are often diagnosed at a later stage.
The team stressed the results do not yet prove the differences cause more aggressive disease. Next, they plan to study how these cell programs interact with diet and gut microbes.
Filed under: Boston MA Health News
