Success of chemotherapy tied t...( hen are members of the Montreal Centre ...)

Colon and rectal cancers, referred to as colorectal cancer, are life-threatening tumors that develop in the large intestine. The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that 18 000 people will be diagnosed with the disease this year. Only lung cancer is responsible for more cancer deaths.

Drs. Rozen, Cohen and Batist, who are also professors in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, analyzed 43 patients with advanced colorectal cancer. All patients were administered fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy. Tumour progression and survival rate was recorded, and their DNA analyzed. The 26 patients with a copy of the MTHFR variant responded better to fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy than those without the variant.

This research was funded by Variagenics, Inc.

About the Research Institute of the MUHC The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) located in Montreal, Quebec, is Canada's largest concentration of biomedical and health-care researchers. The institute has over 500 researchers, nearly 650 graduate and post-doctoral students and 306 laboratories devoted to research. The mission of the institute is to facilitate investigator-initiated and discovery-driven research that creates new knowledge. This research is inextricably linked to the clinical programs of the MUHC, a full service academic hospital for patients of all ages.

About the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research The Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI) located in Montreal, Quebec, is the research arm of the Sir Mortimer B. Davis - Jewish General Hospital and has strong academic links with McGill University. The LDI occupies an important position among major biomedical
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Contact: Christine Zeindler
christine.zeindler@muhc.mcgill.ca
514-934-1934
McGill University
7-May-2003