As we mark Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, it is a good time to reflect on how research helps improve treatments. Sometimes this is many years after a clinical trial has ended.

One area to highlight is the importance of having access to tumour tissue from patients who have taken part in clinical trials. When people agree to donate samples for future research, they are making a powerful and generous decision. Years later, as science and technology improve, researchers can return to these samples and learn far more than was possible at the time.

A powerful example is the VELOUR* clinical trial, which ran in 2008 and included patients from NHS Grampian. The trial studied treatments for people with advanced bowel cancer. Most of our participants agreed for their tumour tissue to be kept for future research, a decision that has made a lasting impact.

Just published in early 2026**, new results from this stored tissue used the latest genetic testing techniques. By analysing both tumour genes and tumour behaviour, the research suggests we may now be able to better predict which patients benefit most from adding a drug called aflibercept. Aflibercep works by reducing the blood supply to tumours.

Patients whose cancers did not have certain gene changes (RAS or BRAF) and belonged to a molecular group called iCMS2 tended to live longer and had better control of their disease. Others, such as patients with different genetic changes or tumour types, benefited less. This shows that bowel cancer is not the same for everyone, and treatments can work better when they are more personalised.

These insights would not have been possible without patients choosing to take part in trials and donate tissue. This Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, we thank them. Their decisions continue to shape better care for future patients.

* Study Details | NCT00561470 | Aflibercept Versus Placebo in Combination With Irinotecan and 5-FU in the Treatment of Patients With Metastatic Colorectal Cancer After Failure of an Oxaliplatin Based Regimen | ClinicalTrials.gov

** Exploratory biomarker analysis of RAS/BRAF somatic mutations and gene expression signatures for predicting treatment effects of aflibercept in the velour trial | npj Precision Oncology