Prof Wendy Atkin

Wendy Atkin

Cancer Research UK Colorectal Cancer Unit
Imperial College
London

Detecting and preventing bowel cancer

Professor Wendy Atkin, based at Imperial College in London, is a prominent bowel cancer researcher. Her research focuses on preventing the disease and detecting it early.

The Flexi-Scope test

With joint funding from the MRC, Professor Atkin has been co-ordinating a large study to test a bowel screening technique called flexible sigmoidoscopy or Flexi-Scope. This technique involves searching for bowel problems with a camera on a flexible plastic tube. Evidence suggests that the test may only need to be done once at around age 60.

The Flexi-Scope test detects and removes small growths (called polyps) inside the bowel. If left untreated, these growths can become cancerous. The test can prevent bowel cancer by removing these polyps before they develop into the disease.

The results of the 16-year study were published in April 2010, and show that a single Flexi-Scope examination in people aged between 55 and 64 can cut the risk of developing bowel cancer by a third. The test also reduced the death rate from bowel cancer by 43 per cent.

The Flexi-Scope test has the potential to save thousands of people from developing bowel cancer. And thousands more could be diagnosed early when treatment is most effective, so this test is a real breakthrough in our efforts to beat cancer.

Professor Atkin is exploring how best to develop an effective workforce of nurses with the specialist skills needed to perform the Flexi-Scope test as part of the screening programme. She has developed information materials and training methods for these nurses.

And she is working out how often people with higher-risk polyps should have check-ups with colonoscopies, to make sure that their polyps haven't become full-blown cancers.

Diagnosing bowel cancer

Professor Atkin is also running the SIGGAR1 trial, of a technique called 'virtual colonoscopy', which could be used instead of colonoscopies to diagnose bowel cancers. This new method takes several x-rays of the bowel to look for tumours, and is less invasive than the traditional method.

Preventing bowel cancer

Professor Atkin is also interested in preventing bowel cancer using food supplements, including vitamins and minerals.

She is preparing to run a trial to see if curcumin - a chemical found in turmeric, the spice that makes curries yellow - and the mineral selenium could help prevent polyps from coming back.

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