Bowel Cancer Awareness Month

Catch it early, catch it right, with immunohistochemistry (IHC), we bring Bowel cancer for the better treatments. IHC detection is a key to the fight!

Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, accounts for more than a million new cases worldwide per year, and is second or third most common cancer and cause of cancer death in men and women globally. Despite the advancements in cancer research and treatments, bowel cancer remains one of the most common and aggressive forms of cancer. Early detection plays a critical role in improving survival rates and ensuring better treatment outcomes. By identifying the disease in its initial stages, healthcare providers can choose less invasive treatment options, potentially saving lives and reducing the overall burden of the disease. The 5-year survival rate for patients diagnosed as stage 1 (localized) of bowel cancer is as high as 91%, as stage 2 &3 (regional), 73% and as stage 4 (distant) significantly lower to 13%. Several critical IHC biomarkers can be utilized with the precision of IHC, allowing us to help make a definitive diagnosis and provide very useful information for better treatment options.

These markers include:

MSI (Microsatellite Instability): MSI antibodies are a group of antibodies, including MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2, that can identify deficient DNA mismatch repair(dMMR) protein in colonic cancer cells and provide very important information for physicians to treat the patients more efficiently. Approximately 15% colorectal cancer is dMMR, and 80% of dMMR colorectal cancer is sporadic, 20% of dMMR colorectal cancer is familiar such as Lynch syndrome. dMMR colorectal cancer has predilection for the right colon.

SATB2: A highly sensitive and specific IHC marker that is most often used in pathology to accurately identify colorectal cancer, very useful in an IHC panel (such as combination with CDX2) for identifying tumours of unknown primary to rule in colorectal metastatic versus mucinous and enteric pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

CDX2: This marker helps confirm bowel cancer’s origin, ensuring accurate diagnosis and differentiation from other types of cancer.
Through IHC, we enable the more accurate detection of colorectal cancer, offering patients the more opportunity for successful treatment and recovery.

#BowelCancerAwareness #IHC #EarlyDetection