Hereditary colon cancer more common in Indonesia, new study finds

A new study has found that Lynch syndrome, which is a hereditary form of colorectal cancer, is more common in young people in Indonesia than in the UK, Europe or the U.S..

The study, published in the journal Cancers, is a collaboration between experts from the University of Nottingham, and the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia and carried out through NICCRAT—the Nottingham-Indonesia Collaboration for Clinical Research and Training) initiative.

In Indonesia, approximately three times as many young people under 50 suffer from colorectal cancer (CRC) which accounts for nearly 30% of the total number of CRC patients, compared to the UK, Europe and the U.S..

Lynch syndrome (LS) is a hereditary type of CRC that is associated with a younger age of patients with CRC. Detecting LS has been long reported to be a cost-effective strategy to provide aid in the diagnosis or management of the individual or at-risk family members by implementing appropriate surveillance for early diagnosis of associated cancers.

In addition, there are prevention measures, such as taking a low dose of aspirin, bowel removal surgery, and lifestyle modification (quitting smoking, maintaining a healthy weight and diet control).

The team used the N_LyST (Nottingham Lynch Syndrome Test) developed in the lab of Professor Mohammad Ilyas, from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, to examine the tissue of 231 patients with CRC from the Dr. Sardjito hospital in Jogjakarta.

Nearly 14 percent of probable LS cases were identified from the samples, which is much higher than the percentage usually reported in the West, which is only around 2-3 percent.