Giving Compass' Take:

• In this story from Fred Hutchinson News Services, Diane Mapes shares an interview with Dr. Ulrike Peters, associate director of the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Peters' team has discovered 40 new mutations that increase an individual's risk of colorectal cancer.

• Peters' team has proven that research into mutations can produce meaningful results for the fight against colorectal cancer. How could donors empower other researchers to conduct similar studies on different types of cancer?

• To learn about research which indicates we might be able to stop metastasis in cancer patients, click here.

A group of colorectal cancer researchers are using the word “milestone” to describe their new genomic research, published today in Nature Genetics. Epidemiologist Dr. Ulrike “Riki” Peters, associate director of the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and one of the lead authors of the study [said] "it helps us understand what genes are involved in the development of colorectal cancer and it will have a tremendous impact downstream. This is a big deal and we are very, very excited.”

How can this new information help the public?

By combining all of the genetic variants that we’ve discovered, we can develop a polygenic risk score to predict who is at very high risk and who is at a low risk. And that information can inform decisions about interventions, such as screening or chemoprevention [using medication to prevent cancer in healthy people]. This is personalized medicine.

What are your next steps?

We have lots of next steps! We want to expand the discovery of common and rare variants; we know there are many more genetic risk loci to be identified. Furthermore, we are actively working on improving the polygenic risk score. While the score works well for people of European descent, it does not work well in other populations. We want to recruit more African-Americans and Hispanics, as patients and controls, so we can develop polygenic risk scores that are unbiased and will work for all U.S. populations.

Read the full article about cancer research by Diane Mapes at Fred Hutchinson News Service