Irish scientists have developed a new method of predicting which bowel cancer patients will respond effectively to chemotherapy.

Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, is the second most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in Ireland. More than 2,200 people are diagnosed with the disease here every year. It is also the second biggest cancer killer here.

According to the scientists from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Beaumont Hospital, in the future, this method could help to identify those patients who will not respond to chemotherapy. This will save the patients from having to undergo this often grueling treatment for nothing and will also show who may need additional treatments.

The new method works by measuring the amount of drug needed to kill a cancer cell, but without harming healthy tissue.

"Our study has enabled us to predict which patients are likely to be resistant to chemotherapy by examining how certain proteins in their cancer cells interact.

"We hope that the clinical decision-making tool that we have designed will enable doctors to develop personalised therapies for patients to ensure the best outcomes and potentially avoiding unnecessary chemotherapy and the negative side-effects that go with it," said lead scientist, Prof Jochen Prehn, of the RCSI.

He added that this new method also has the potential to be used in clinical trials to develop new drugs to treat this type of cancer in people who are chemotherapy-resistant.

"The model we developed in this study could also eventually be applied in other cancers," Prof Prehn said.

Details of these findings are published in the international medical journal, Cancer Research.