News

Radiation therapy for colon cancer works better when specific protein blocked

Baosheng Chen, PhD, Matthew Ciorba, MD, and David Alvarado, PhD, have a strategy to make radiation therapy more effective in treating colorectal cancer by blocking a IDO1 protein. They were photographed in Ciorba’s lab in the Northwest Tower on January 10, 2020. MATT MILLER/WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
View Content

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis appear to have discovered a way to make radiation therapy for colorectal cancer more effective by inhibiting a protein found in cancer cells in the gut. The approach also helps protect healthy tissue from the negative effects of radiation.