Last month we shared that ground-breaking progress is being made by the ICAN IBD Study, made possible by 40tude funding. We're delighted that its significance has now attracted national media attention, following publication on 30th January 2025 of an article by the research team in the highly-regarded GUT journal.
 
Professor Ailsa Hart, Consultant Gastroenterologist and world-renowned Director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research at St. Mark’s Hospital, is collaborating with Professor Trevor Graham from the Institute of Cancer Research to develop new ways to accurately determine bowel cancer risk for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).  The genius of this project stems from the collaboration of these two subject-matter experts.  The St. Mark’s element of this study has been funded by 40tude.
 
People with IBD can have a higher risk of getting bowel cancer but until recently it’s been difficult to accurately measure the level of risk in each patient individually.  At present frequent colonoscopy is the main method of determining their level of risk.
 
The team has been researching together the genetic DNA patterns of individual patients.  Their research findings have shown more than 90% accuracy in predicting bowel cancer risk in the next five years using this genomic test in a high-risk group of people with IBD.  The next step could be developing a less invasive test, such as a blood test, which will inform doctors which IBD patients are most at risk of cancer and enable them to provide more personalised care, appropriate for their level of risk.
 
You can read more about this exciting development in the report here in The Times (it featured also on Sky News).  
 
We’re grateful to the 8C Capital Trust and the entire 40tude community for helping to fund this pioneering study, making a very real difference to the early detection of colon cancer.