The Salt Lake City-based Huntsman Cancer Institute received $8.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to find out how lifestyle and health factors impact colon and rectal cancer outcomes.
Here's what you should know.
1. ColoCare is seeking to identify the elements that help colorectal patients survive and recover.
2. Researchers are evaluating blood, saliva and tissue samples from men and women with colorectal cancer. They then conduct a survey to find out their lifestyle characteristics.
3. The researchers hope the data will determine what lifestyle choices help patients improve and which do not. It could also tailor treatments to certain lifestyles depending on effectiveness.
4. The Senior Director of Population Sciences at Huntsman Cancer Institute Neli Ulrich, PhD, is coordinating the study with several other facilities throughout the world.
5. Researchers already analyzed more than 1,400 patients for the first phase of the study. The researchers are using the grant money to raise that number to more than 4,000.