The role of HMGB1 in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer

Cancer of the large bowel (colon) is a common cancer worldwide. Identifying new treatments and ways to predict outcome and reponse to treatment for patients is important. We are interested in a protein called HMGB1 in this context. HMGB1 can stimulate an immune reaction and influence behaviour of cancer cells. We have shown that HMGB1 in a particular part of the cell (cytoplasm) is associated with the earliest stage of colon cancer. We now aim to investigate the consequence of this through identifying the types of immune cells associated with HMGB1 and explore how HMGB1 influences colon cancer cell growth.