Christine Eyler, MD, PhD

Every year, over 40,000 people are diagnosed rectal cancer in the US. Many of these patients will receive radiation treatment. Sadly, radiation does not cure all rectal cancers. Many non-genetic, or “epigenetic,” factors control how cancer cells are built and how they respond to treatment. Often, these factors mimic biology seen in normal, non-cancer cells. Radiation causes normal intestine cells to change into stem cells that repair damage. We suspect these radiation-induced stem cells also occur in rectal cancer. We propose to test whether these radiation-induced stem cells cause rectal cancer to resist radiation. We will also map out the epigenetic factors that allow these stem cells to arise. To do this we will use new methods we have developed to show the fine details of epigenetic regulation. From our data, we will discern new mechanisms of rectal cancer radiation response. We hope these studies will yield novel treatments to combine with radiation for rectal cancer.