Fight Colorectal Cancer and Colon Cancer Coalition partnered to fund research looking at the differences in biology between patients with early-onset CRC and older-onset CRC at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic.
Early-onset CRC rates are inexplicably increasing with no known cause.
Lisa Boardman, MD, an assistant professor at the Mayo Clinic, is working to expand a biobank to include precancerous samples and cancerous samples. Those samples will allow researchers to better understand how CRC progresses. Dr. Boardman's past research identified several differences in biology between early-onset and older-onset CRC patients.
The organizations are donating $200,000 to fund the research.