Study author Steven Lubbe, a PhD student at the ICR, said: "Our research shows for the first time the increased risk of developing bowel cancer that carriers of these mutations have, but interestingly it does not apply to people who only carry one damaged copy of the gene. Although mutations in this gene are very rare and it will only be relevant to a very small percentage of the overall cases of bowel cancer, the results here could be used to detect those people with some of the highest risks and help target screening to relatives of known carriers."

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK. Each year more than 37,000 people are diagnosed in the UK, that's more than 100 people a day. Around 16,000 people a year die from bowel cancer in the UK.

Senior author Professor Richard Houlston, head of the ICR's Molecular and Population Genetics Team and Steven Lubbe's supervisor, said: "This important step forward in the search for bowel cancer genes is all the more impressive having been carried out by a PhD student, showing the value in the ICR and Cancer Research UK's focus on fostering young scientific talent."

Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, Dr Lesley Walker, said: "This interesting study adds to our understanding of the inherited risk of bowel cancer. Research such as this could help us to identify those who are most at risk of cancer so we can target measures that prevent the cancer or detect it early so treatment is targeted at those with the greatest need."

Source: Cancer Research UK