NEW TECHNIQUE AIDS COLON CANCER TESTING.(MAIN)

Byline: -- Associated Press

Scientists say that they've found a more thorough way to detect gene flaws that promote colon cancer, and that the technique should improve testing for genetic susceptibility to other diseases as well.

The work was presented today in the journal Nature by a team including Dr. Bert Vogelstein of the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in Baltimore and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The researchers studied patients with hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, or HNPCC, which accounts for 4 percent to 5 percent of colon cancers. …