Grant: Project Grant

For men and women combined, colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Canada. Mechanisms underlying colorectal cancer development are complex and heterogeneous. Mutations in KRAS and BRAF genes are found in up to 50% of these cancers. In the cell, RAS and RAF proteins are two major players in the MAP kinase pathway, which is a chain of proteins that communicates a signal from a receptor on the surface of the cell to the DNA in the nucleus. Recent research in colorectal cancer cells supports the possibility that a significant subset of these cancers will be responsive to inhibitors of this pathway. However, the MAP Kinase pathway is not a simple linear pathway, with a multitude of positive and negative regulatory components operating at all levels of the cascade. The focus of our research is to analyze the contribution of DUSP4, an inhibitor of MAP Kinase pathway, in intestinal tumour development. Our long-term is to determine if DUSP4 can be used clinically as a biomarker or therapeutic target for colorectal cancer.