Promega Joins Fight against Colorectal Cancer with $50,000 Donation

March 20, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

March 22 is National Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day and March is
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

MADISON, Wis.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CRC?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#CRClt;/agt;–Ahead of National Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day (March 22), and as part
of Colorectal Cancer Awareness month (March), Promega
Corporation is donating up to $50,000 to colorectal cancer
education, including a donation to the non-profit Fight
Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) Research Advocacy Training Program.
Promega, a global biotechnology company, will donate $10 for each
customer, employee and member of the general public who visits www.Promega.com/FightCRC
and takes the pledge to increase awareness of the disease.

“Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers, and
yet there’s still plenty of room for more understanding around
prevention, detection and treatment,” says Heather Tomlinson, Director
of Clinical Diagnostics at Promega. “For example, many are unaware that
Lynch syndrome, an inherited genetic condition, increases the likelihood
of developing colorectal and other types of cancer. About five percent
of colorectal cancer cases are caused by an inherited mutation and as
many as 1 in 300 people might be carriers for the mutations associated
with Lynch syndrome. Identifying this condition is crucial not only for
patients but also their immediate and extended family members who may
have Lynch but do not know it.”

Simple screening tests performed on cancerous tumor tissue can determine
if Lynch syndrome is likely. The two most common tests are
microsatellite instability testing (MSI) and immunohistochemistry
testing (IHC) for mismatch repair proteins (MMR). The results of these
tests can indicate whether more specific genetic testing should be
considered.

More resources about the genetics of inherited colorectal cancer,
including Lynch syndrome, are at www.promega.com/FightCRC
including:

How universal
screening of all tumors and Lynch-associated cancers can help
identify patients and families who have an increased risk for
colorectal and other cancers, as well as identify tumors most likely
to respond to immunotherapeutics.
What
a Lynch Syndrome diagnosis has meant for a mother who has battled
three different types of cancer starting at age 44.

About Promega

Promega Corporation is a leader in providing innovative solutions and
technical support to the life sciences industry. The company’s 4,000
products enable scientists worldwide to advance their knowledge in
genomics, proteomics, cellular analysis, drug discovery and human
identification. Founded in 1978, the company is headquartered in
Madison, WI, USA with branches in 16 countries and over 50 global
distributors. For more information about Promega, visit www.promega.com.