'Breakthrough' for bowel cancer

Bowel cancer kills thousands each year

A Northern Ireland company has made a medical breakthrough in the treatment of bowel cancer.

Almac Sciences, based in Craigavon in County Armagh, has discovered a way to identify those people in which the disease will return.

It means the 80% of bowel cancer sufferers who receive chemotherapy unnecessarily could now avoid the treatment.

Professor Paul Harkin of Almac Sciences said it was an exciting discovery.

"It certainly can be considered Star Trek stuff. It really advances the field of diagnostics and will allow us to develop these new tests much faster than we could ever have dreamed a few years ago," he said.

BBC Northern Ireland health correspondent Dot Kirby said everyone diagnosed with early stage bowel cancer had an operation to try to remove the tumour.

"Afterwards, it is known that in one in five people, the cancer will come back," she said.

"But doctors have no way of knowing who those one in five people are. So everyone gets chemotherapy.

"Now a local company Almac, who are based in Craigavon, have found a way of identifying who those one in five are likely to be.

"And therefore four in five people will be able to avoid chemotherapy."

The company his developing similar tests to help people with other cancers.