Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cause of cancer mortality in the world and the second cause of death from cancer in Canada. While CRC is largely preventable by removal of intestinal polyps, there is a dramatic decline in survival following tumor establishment. Therefore, early detection and removal of polyps at the precancerous stage is critical for patient survival. A common screening test in Québec for polyps and tumors is based on the immunochemical based fecal occult blood test (iFOBT), which consists in the detection of blood in patient’s stool. However, this test is nonspecific and leads to many invasive nonessential procedures. Recent studies demonstrated that the microbiome, bacteria living in the human gut, has emerged as an important risk factor for colon cancer. Our team will address this by establishing the microbiome as a biomarker for colorectal cancer. We are using the provincial screening for CRC combined with bioinformatic tools to improve prediction of most at risk patients in the whole of Québec. This will dramatically increase the quality of CRC prevention for patients participating in this provincial screening while decreasing societal cost by several millions of dollars per year.
Genome Centre: Génome Québec
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| Jean | Dubé | Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke |