Scientists in Northern Ireland have made a major breakthrough which could benefit patients with bowel cancer.

Bowel (colon) cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in Ireland. More than 2,200 people are diagnosed with the disease here every year.

Over half of patients develop an aggressive type of the disease which does not usually respond to standard forms of therapy.

A team at Queen's University in Belfast has discovered how two genes - MEK and MET - cause bowel cancer cells to become resistant to treatment. The discovery was made when the scientists were analysing the different interactions that take place in the cells of bowel cancer.

They found that when bowel cancer is treated with drugs to target faulty MEK genes, they switch on a survival mechanism. However, when the scientists added drugs that blocked the MET gene, the bowel cancer cells died.

The scientists now plan to target these two genes in the most aggressive types of bowel cancer as part of a clinical trial funded by the European Commission. That trial is due to begin in September.

"We have discovered how two key genes contribute to aggressive bowel cancer. Understanding how they are involved in development of the disease has also primed the development of a potential new treatment approach for this disease," commented the study's author, Dr Sandra van Schaeybroeck.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Cell Reports.