Finding ways to detect oesophageal cancer sooner

There are around half a million people diagnosed worldwide each year with oesophageal cancer. Survival rates have seen little improvement over decades of research and today only around 1 in 8 people will survive for 10 years or more following diagnosis. One of the main reasons for the high mortality from oesophageal cancer is that the disease is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. 

Dr Maria Alcolea at the University of Cambridge, England, wants to uncover new ways to diagnose oesophageal cancer early, when the patient has the best chance of survival. To do this, her team are studying the molecular processes that occur as oesophageal cancer develops. Through this work, they hope to identify molecular markers that can be used to detect oesophageal cancer as early as possible.