Doctor has gut feeling

RECORDS: SEEKING ANSWERS TO RISE IN BOWEL CANCER AMONG YOUNG

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FORGOTTEN. Consultant gastroenterologist Kevin Monahan sifts through samples in a storeroom at St Mark's Hospital at Northwick Park in Harrow, west London, in the UK.

(AFP)

In a dusty hospital basement on the outskirts of London, over 100 years of medical history lines the shelves, neatly arranged in row after row of cardboard specimen boxes.

Largely forgotten until recently, it is hoped this unique archive will help unravel the mystery of the rising number of younger people getting bowel cancer.

The archive contains tens of thousands of tumour and tissue specimens, some dating back to the early 20th century.

Preserved in formaldehyde and paraffin wax, they come from patients treated at the UK’s national bowel hospital, St Mark’s, in northwest London.

In a study which began in January, researchers are using cutting-edge technology to compare archive tumours from the 1960s with ones from the present day.