Grant: Project Grant

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer afflicting Canadians. Cancer cells arise when the body's own cells become mutated to the point that they develop independence from the body's normal growth control mechanisms. In many cases, mutations in a gene mean that it cannot function normally. Mutations in many different types of genes can lead to colorectal cancer and some of the most common mutations change the ability of a cell to keep its DNA healthy. When this happens, cancer cells cannot repair damage to their genes and so even more faulty and abnormal-looking proteins build up inside of them. The body possesses a natural defense (the immune system) that detects and attacks foreign looking cells such as bacteria and viruses. While this system expertly recognizes and destroys infecting microbes, it consistently fails to recognize mutated cancer cells as dangerous despite their high content of abnormal proteins. Scientists are still trying to understand why this is the case and how we can help the immune system "see" cancer cells as foreign. In the proposed project, we will investigate whether there is any association between the failure of a cancer cell to maintain healthy DNA and how easily it can be detected by the immune system. We are interested in doing this because it is relatively easy with current technology to look at a colon cancer sample and determine if it has mutations that disable DNA monitoring but it is difficult to find out how visible a particular cancer is to the immune system. If we do find such an association, it would be possible for doctors to screen a patient's tumor sample for such mutations in DNA monitoring genes and use this information to better determine a patient's prognosis and optimal treatment strategy. This research will also help us develop a better understanding of why the immune system is blind to most colorectal cancer cells and help us develop new treatments that can boost natural cancer detection.