Queen's University Belfast researchers' breakthrough leads to new clinical trial in bowel cancer

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered how two genes – called MEK and MET – cause bowel cancer cells to become resistant to treatments used against the disease, according to research in the journal Cell Reports.

The team at Queen’s University Belfast are now testing a new approach to targeting MEK and MET in a clinical trial. The two proteins were uncovered when the researchers looked at all the different pathways and interactions taking place in bowel cancers that have faults in the KRAS gene. Around 45% of bowel cancers have this fault.

They found that these bowel cancers switch on a survival mechanism when they are treated with drugs that target faulty MEK genes. But when the researchers added drugs that also block the MET gene, the bowel cancer cells died.