VAI researchers zero in on rare cancer


GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - An international team involving researchers from the Van Andel Institute has identified genes that may reveal the cause of and treatment for a rare but deadly form of cancer. The team did it by traveling to a part of the world where the cancer is 450 times more prevalent than in the United States."It's a silent killer in our place," Sopit Wongkham said of bile duct cancer.

Wongkham is an associate professor at Kohn Kaen University in Thailand. Bile duct cancer strikes 90 of every 100,000 people in northeast Thailand, compared to 0.2 per 100,000 in the U.S., Wongkham said Thursday.

"Mostof these patients die and there is no effective drug," said Dr. Bin Teh, a distinguished scientific investigator at Van Andel Institute.







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