|  |  |  | | | | Oxford scientists' discovery to aid cancer diagnosis | | | | |
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Release Date: 2 January 2008
A research team in Oxford has discovered the next piece in a genetic jigsaw involved in switching genes on and off, which may hold the key to improved diagnosis of non Hodgkin's lymphoma, the sixth most common cancer in the UK.
Dr Alison Banham and her team, whose work at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, University of Oxford is funded by Leukaemia Research, had already found that abundant-levels of a protein, called FOXP1, gives early warning of particularly high-risk B-cell lymphoma in patients.
The team have now recently discovered that these high-levels are often smaller forms, which may work differently to the whole FOXP1 protein.
Dr Banham says: "Detection of these smaller FOXP1 proteins should improve our ability to identify high-risk patients at the start of their treatment and by targeting these variants we hope to develop new drugs or combinations of drugs which will be more effective."
Leukaemia Research currently has £5.8 million invested in research into blood cancers at Oxford. The report is published this month in the highly respected journal, Blood.
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