U-M AND ISRAEL LAUNCH COLON CANCER STUDY

Researchers at the University of Michigan and the KHC National Center of Cancer Control in Haifa, Israel have been awarded a $4.8 million grant to study genetic aspects of colon cancer.

The five-year study, funded by the National Cancer Institute, will examine how genetic susceptibility to cancer may be modified by diet, medications, and lifestyle.

The Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer study will identify and interview more than 2,000 individuals in Israel who have colon cancer and compare them to a cancer-free group of equal size.

“Colon cancer is a complex disease, and genetic susceptibility is only part of the story,” says Stephen Gruber, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of the study and assistant professor of internal medi-cine and epidemiology. “Many people with a genetic susceptibility to colon cancer never develop the disease, and we need to figure out why.”

Researchers elected to conduct the study in Israel because three different ethnic populations there have very different risks of colon cancer. Individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish descent have relatively high rates of colon cancer, whereas colon cancer is rare in people of Arabic descent. Sephardic Jews have an intermediate risk of colon cancer.

“It is not clear why different populations within Israel have such different risks of colon cancer, nor do we understand the influences of immigration,” says Gadi Rennert, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator of the study and director of the KHC National Center for Cancer Control at Carmel Medical Center and Technion in Haifa, Israel. “This study should provide insight into how cancer develops, not just within one specific ethnic group, but how common themes can be unraveled for many populations.”