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Why Cancer Research is important
Each year in Ireland, there are over 20,000 new cases of cancer and over 7,500 cancer deaths, accounting for almost one quarter of the annual death toll. Cancer is a major cause of death and disease in this country as in all Western communities. Faced with such facts we must do everything in our power to combat the disease. Research is helping to identify the causes of cancer and is pointing the way to improved methods of diagnosis and treatment. The Irish Cancer Society is the largest funder of cancer research in Ireland. Research proposals are assessed by Cancer Research Ireland which is the research division of the Society.
Cancer Research Ireland
Cancer Research Ireland (CRI) an autonomous body within the framework of the Irish Cancer Society, is responsible for evaluating research proposals. The Board is composed of Irish and Overseas cancer specialists who act as assessors.Each year approximately 30 grant applications are received from researchers in universities and teaching hospitals all around the country. On average about 12 cancer new research programmes are funded each year.CRI seeks to ensure that funded programmes are directly relevant to the Irish situation and are aimed at improving patient diagnosis, treatment and management in this country. In addition, care is taken that funded proposals serve the international fight against cancer and do not needlessly duplicate research being carried out elsewhere.
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Lung cancer drug 'extends life'
Page last updated at 07:03 GMT, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 08:03 UK
Courtesy of BBC News
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in the UK after breast cancer A drug called erlotinib or Tarceva can extend life for women with advanced lung cancer, experts say.
Early trial results show the drug can reduce the chances of dying by a quarter.
An American cancer conference heard how it could offer new hope to those patients too sick for chemotherapy.
In trials, 15% of women were alive and had no progression of their cancer 12 months after taking the drug compared with only 5% of those on a placebo.
The study involved 670 men and women with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, of whom more than half were over the age of 77.
Continue reading the main story We are not yet sure why it was most effective in women but this is positive news for this large group who have few other treatment options
TO READ FULL ARTICLE PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10257084.stm
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A ‘completely different approach’ to cancer treatment
Page last updated at 8:35 GMT, Monday, 31 May 2010 9:35 UK
Courtesy of BBC News
It is hoped new drugs will work across a wide variety of different cancers "Up until very recently, all patients with breast cancer were basically given the same therapy.
"We now clearly know that's not the right way to do things."
Professor Peter Rigby, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, believes that recently the way treatments for cancer are being researched has completely changed.
And this, he thinks, is because of great strides made on how scientists are able to understand the genetic code.
In 2003, the Human Genome Project succeeded in sequencing the human genome to 99.9% accuracy, allowing scientists to "read" human DNA. Since then, researchers have been using this so-called roadmap to find a correlation between certain genomes and cancer.
This means that, in theory at least, cancer could be treated on a molecular level rather than using current therapies - such as chemotherapy or surgery - which damage many healthy cells along with those which are cancerous.
DACC INVITE YOU TO LEARN MORE BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK PLEASE news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10182421.stm
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Page last updated at 17:09 GMT, Sunday, 9 May 2010 18:09 UK
Courtesy of BBC news
Breast cancer gene clue discovery
By Helen Briggs
Health reporter, BBC News
Five genetic clues to why some women have a family history of breast cancer have been identified by UK researchers.
It brings to 18 the number of common genetic variations linked to a small increased risk of breast cancer.
The Cambridge University-led research, published in Nature Genetics, could see targeted screening and treatment of women more likely to get breast cancer.
It is thought about one in 20 of all breast cancers are down to inherited faults in known genes.
To read full article please click on this link news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8667944.stm
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Breast cancer - many overestimate future risk [Posted: Mon 29/03/2010 by Deborah Condon]
Women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer often significantly over-estimate the risk of the disease developing in their unaffected breast, the results of a new study indicate.
As a result of this, some are choosing to have prophylactic mastectomies based on a false perception of increased risk. A prophylactic mastectomy is surgery to remove one or both breasts to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.
Speaking at a major European conference recently, Mr Ajay Sahu, a consultant breast surgeon at the Frenchay Hospital in the UK, explained that women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer believe the risk of the disease occurring in their unaffected breast is as much as ten times higher than it actually is.
To read full article click on this link www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=17082
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Sunday, 28 March 2010 00:17 UK C ourtesy of BBC News
Chemical 'nips cancer in the bud'
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK
A chemical cocktail may be able to destroy growths in the gut which have the potential to become colon cancers, say scientists.
To read full article please click on this link news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8590023.stm
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Pregnancy 'protects against breast cancer' [Posted: Sun 28/03/2010 by Deborah Condon] Courtesy of Irish Health
Women who get pregnant after battling breast cancer are not at an increased risk of dying from the disease. In fact, pregnancy may improve their chances of future survival, European researchers have said.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women during their childbearing years. As women delay starting families until they are older, and survival from breast cancer has improved, an increasing number of breast cancer survivors want to have babies after their treatment has finished.
To read full article please click on this link www.irishhealth.ie/article.html?id=17079
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Friday, 26 March 2010 Courtesy of BBC News
Beta-blockers 'cut cancer spread'
A radiologist studies mammograms
Blood pressure drugs may be able to reduce the ability of breast cancer to spread around the body,
researchers have told a European conference.
A joint UK and German study found that cancer patients taking beta-blockers had a lower risk of dying.
The drugs may block hormones that trigger the spread of cancer cells.
To read article please click on this link news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8589066.stm
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Leukaemia vaccine being developed Courtesy of King Inn College
05 Jan 2010, PR 03/10
 Scientists at King’s have developed a vaccine treatment for Leukaemia that can be used to stop the disease returning after chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant. The vaccine is due to be tested on patients for the first time. Eventually it is hoped the drug, which activates the body's own immune system against the leukaemia, could be used to treat other types of cancers.
Leukaemia is a cancer of the white blood cells and bone marrow affects around 7,200 patients a year. Around 4,300 die from the disease annually. Treatment comes in two stages - chemotherapy to rid the body of the disease, then to prevent it returning either further chemotherapy or a bone marrow transplant. Latest survival rates show that more than half the people with leukaemia die within five years of diagnosis.
The first patients to be treated as part of the clinical trial at King’s College Hospital, have the form of the disease known as Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), the most common form in adults. Even with aggressive treatment half would usually find the disease returns. In the initial stages of the trial patients will be enrolled in the trial if they have had chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. If early trials are successful the vaccine may be tested in patients who cannot have a bone marrow transplant because they are unsuitable or a match cannot be found.
The study, led by Professors Ghulam Mufti and Farzin Farzaneh and Dr Nicola Hardwick, has involved intricate work to develop a man-made virus, which carries the two genes into the immune system.
Farzin Farzaneh, Professor of Molecular Medicine, in the Department of Haemato-oncology at the College, said if the trials are successful then the vaccine could be "rolled out" to treat other leukaemias and cancers. ‘It is the same concept as normal vaccines. The immune system is made to see something as foreign and can then destroy it itself. This has the chance to be curative.’
Cancer ‘vaccines’
The idea behind cancer 'vaccines’ is not necessarily to prevent the disease. Instead, once a patient has been diagnosed, the 'vaccine' programmes the immune system to hunt down cancer cells and destroy them. The vaccine then prompts the immune system to recognise leukaemia cells if they return which prevents a relapse of the disease. The vaccine is created by removing cells from the patient's blood and manipulating them in the laboratory.
The cells are given two genes which act as flags to help identify the leukaemia. It effectively focuses and boosts the immune system's ability to seek out and destroy cancer cells. The research is due to be published in the Journal of Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy shortly.
The study follows successful experiments on experimental tumour models showing that injection with the gene modified tumour cells results in the induction of immune mediated tumour rejection.
The work, which has taken 20 years to develop, has more recently been funded by the Department of Health and various charities including: Cancer Research UK, the Leukaemia Research Fund (LRF) and the Elimination of Leukaemia Fund (ELF).
The research was carried out at King's College London's Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC), which is one of 17 new centres across the country launched to develop basic science into treatments for patients as quickly as possible.
King’s Health Partners members King’s College London and King’s College Hospital are jointly sponsoring this groundbreaking research.
Notes to editors
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.
Further information
Kate Moore, Public Realtions Officer (Health Schools)
Public Relations Department
Email: kate.moore@kcl.ac.uk
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Page last updated at 00:00 GMT, Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Courtesy of BBC News
Cancer drugs 'treat' aggressive childhood brain tumours
Glioblastomas are aggressive and often fatal cancers of the brain
Aggressive childhood brain tumours could be treatable with a novel combination of two existing cancer drugs, a study suggests.
Researchers led by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) examined 90 tumours from children and found two new genetic abnormalities in nine of them.
They were then able to kill these abnormal tumours, in laboratory tests, by combining the two existing drugs.
But one expert says the findings remain "far off being applicable to patients". In the UK, about 400 children are diagnosed with brain tumours every year.
The research, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, brought together scientists from the UK, France, Portugal, Brazil and America.
The abnormal tumours - known as glioblastomas, aggressive and often fatal cancers of the brain's glial cells - contained too many copies of the EGFR gene and mutations of the gene the scientists say have never before been found in children.
Cancers may look the same, but it is only when you get down to the genetic level that you can truly understand them and devise treatments
Dr Chris Jones
They tried to block the EGFR gene with a drug, erlotinib (Tarceva), used in clinical trials to treat adult glioblastomas, but identified a molecule specific to the children's cells - platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PGFR) - that was making it ineffective.
But when they combined erlotinib with a drug, imatinib (Glivec), they hoped would block the PGFR molecules, they killed a significant number of the cancer cells.
Dr Chris Jones, who led the research, said it proved "that cancers may look the same, but it is only when you get down to the genetic level that you can truly understand them and devise treatments".
Professor Geoff Pilkington, of the Brainstrust charity, said the research, though fascinating, was at too early a stage to turn into a treatment for patients.
"This sort of twin therapy is a good thing to consider for the future," he said.
Bur he added: "The cells of the brain seem to be unusually resistant to anything thrown at them."
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Page last updated at 18:33 GMT, Thursday, 12 November 2009
Courtesy of BBC news
Breast 'regrowth' trial planned
The team will carry out a trial of the breast-shaped scaffold
Researchers in Australia plan to test a medical "scaffold" designed to stimulate natural breast tissue to regrow following surgery.
Doctors from the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne, will test the technique next year in a trial involving six patients.
The team say that the permanent fat found in breasts can be grown inside this contoured scaffold.
They claim to have successfully tested the device in pigs.
The results of that experiment were presented at a plastic surgery conference in Sydney.
The researchers recently announced on the institute's website that they had received funding from the Australian government to carry out the human trial.
If this is successful, they hope to develop it into a breast reconstruction technique that avoids using silicone.
Breast scaffold
The teams says that when the "empty chamber" is implanted, fat tissue will naturally fill it to form a new breast.
It's at such an early stage, it is not yet clear whether it will work in people
Dr Lesley Walker
Cancer Research UK
This chamber will also contain a gel made using the patients' muscle cells to "induce fat tissue production".
Professor Anthony Hollander, an expert in tissue engineering from the University of Bristol in the UK, said the attractions of this approach were its simplicity and the fact that the tissue growth occurred inside the body.
"At the time of implanting the cells the surgeon redirects the vasculature of the body which keeps a good blood supply to the implant. That is in itself nothing new, but combining it with a cell implant is an interesting step," he said.
He said that the technological advance was the use of a biomaterial cage used to trap the cells in the right place.
In future, the team plan to make this cage biodegradable so it does not have to be removed.
"If it's tried and it works that will be a really nice approach," Professor Hollander said.
But he cautioned that there was "still some way to go".
"This procedure is first likely to be used on cancer patients," he said.
"[The team will] have to be able to demonstrate a technique that guarantees that all the cancerous cells are removed and none are grown up in the process, so there is still some way to go."
Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: "We know that having a mastectomy can be a very difficult experience for many women and so research to try to improve breast reconstruction after surgery is important.
"[But] it's at such an early stage, it is not yet clear whether it will work in people. Even if this surgery proves to be effective, it will be a number of years before it can be used in the clinic."
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age last updated at 00:20 GMT, Thursday, 12 November 2009
Courtesy of BBC News
Cancer protein 'can be disarmed'
A malfunction in the protein causes leukaemia
Scientists have found a way to disarm a protein thought to play a key role in leukaemia and other cancers.
The breakthrough raises hopes of a new type of therapy that could treat cancer and other diseases.
Previous attempts to neutralise the protein had failed, leading experts to conclude it was effectively "undruggable".
The study, carried out by the US Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, features in the journal Nature.
The protein is one of the body's transcription factors, which turn genes on or off and set in motion genetic cascades that control how cells grow and develop. They also help fuel the growth of tumours.
The transcription factor targeted in the latest study is a protein called Notch.
The gene responsible for manufacturing the protein is often damaged or mutated in patients with a form of blood cancer known as T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
Stapled peptides promise to significantly expand the range of what's considered 'druggable'
Professor Greg Verdine
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
As a result the gene is switched on all the time, driving the uncontrolled cell growth characteristic of cancer.
Similar abnormalities in Notch also underlie other cancers, including lung, ovarian, pancreatic and gastrointestinal tumours.
Examining the structure of Notch closely, the researchers isolated a potential weak spot in its structure.
They employed a state-of-the-art technique using chemical braces to mould protein snippets called peptides into specific three dimensional shapes.
These "stapled" peptides are readily absorbed by cells, and are so tiny they can be deployed to alter gene regulation at specific sites.
After designing and testing several synthetic stapled peptides, the researchers identified one that was able to disrupt Notch's function.
When tested in mice it was found to limit the growth of cancer cells.
It may lead to alternative drugs and better treatments for this kind of leukaemia and maybe other cancers
Dr David Ish-Horowicz
Cancer Research UK
Analysis showed that activity was depressed in genes both directly and indirectly controlled by Notch.
The researchers hope the technique could also be used to target other transcription factors with a similar structure.
Researcher Professor Greg Verdine said: "Stapled peptides promise to significantly expand the range of what's considered 'druggable'.
"With our discovery, we've declared open season on transcription factors and other intractable drug targets."
Dr David Ish-Horowicz, head of developmental genetics at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute, described the research as "very interesting".
He said: "There is already considerable work by scientists into ways to block Notch to try and reverse the effects of ALL, but the current drugs have some serious side-effects.
"This study describes the design of a new chemical that blocks the mechanism in a different way.
"The new chemical has only been tested in mice so far, and so we don't know how it will behave in humans.
"But, long term, it may lead to alternative drugs and better treatments for this kind of leukaemia and maybe other cancers."
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Boffins may have found new anti-cancer weapon
Tuesday, 10 November 2009 Courtesy of Belfast Telegraph
Drugs that block the effects of the female hormone oestrogen may be an effective new weapon against cervical cancer, research suggests.
Two of the drugs, currently used to treat breast cancer, were found to eliminate the disease in mice. Scientists do not yet know whether they will have the same effect in humans, but are hopeful.
“There are many similarities to how cervical cancer develops and manifests itself in women and in mice,” said Dr Paul Lambert, one of the researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
“We have begun to test whether the drugs are as effective in treating cervical cancer in human cells as they are in our mice.”
The drugs also prevented mice with pre-cancerous growths from developing cervical cancer. Lab studies which may take another one or two years to complete could quickly be followed by clinical trials leading to the treatment being licensed.
Early phase safety trials which would normally be necessary could be avoided since the drugs are already approved for patients.
One of the medicines tested was fulvestrant. The other was raloxifene, which is used to treat osteoporosis as well as breast cancer.
Both stop oestrogen stimulating hormone-sensitive breast tumours.
The new research suggests that they have a similar effect on cervical cancer.
Scientists focused on one of two oestrogen “receptors” - molecular “switches” on cells that trigger a cascade of biochemical effects when stimulated by the hormone.
Cervical cancer-prone mice genetically engineered not to have the receptor completely failed to develop the disease even when exposed to oestrogen.
The scientists are now testing human cervical cancer lines in the laboratory to see if their growth can be stopped with the oestrogen receptor blockers.
Next the drugs will be tested on tissue samples removed from women who have undergone surgery for cervical cancer.
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Page last updated at 18:03 GMT, Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Courtesy of BBC News
Drug 'shrinks lung cancer tumour'
Small cell lung cancer has a poor prognosis
Scientists have identified a drug which may offer hope to patients with a particularly lethal form of lung cancer.
The drug eliminated small cell lung cancer tumours in 50% of mice, and blocked the cells' ability to resist standard chemotherapy treatment.
The Imperial College London team now hope to test it in patients with an inoperable form of the disease.
Their study appears in the journal Cancer Research.
We hope to take this drug into clinical trials next year
Professor Michael Seckl
Imperial College London
Lung cancer is a major killer, and the small cell version of the disease, which makes up 20% of total cases, has a particularly poor prognosis. Only around 3% of patients survive for five years.
The cancer spreads quickly, so surgery is not often an option.
Chemotherapy, sometimes supplemented with radiotherapy, often reduces the size of tumours, but they usually grow back rapidly, and become resistant to further treatment.
A growth hormone called FGF-2 appears to speed division of the cancer cells, and to trigger a survival mechanism which makes them resistant to chemotherapy.
PD173074 blocks FGF-2 from attaching to tumour cells. The researchers say it could potentially be taken as a pill, rather than fed into the body via a drip.
It was originally developed in 1998 to stop blood vessels from forming around tumours.
Further trials needed
Researcher Professor Michael Seckl said: "We urgently need to develop new treatments for this disease.
"We hope to take this drug, or a similar drug that also stops FGF-2 from working, into clinical trials next year to see if it is a successful treatment for lung cancer in humans."
Initially, the new drug was tested on cells taken from human tumours.
It stopped the cells proliferating, and neutralised their defences, allowing them to be killed off with standard chemotherapy.
Follow-up tests on mice showed the drug was effective against tumour cells, both in isolation, and in combination with the standard chemotherapy agent, cisplatin.
Dr Joanna Owens, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said: "It is encouraging to see potential new drugs for lung cancer in the initial stages of development.
"The early results from this study are impressive but we will need to wait for the results of clinical trials before we will know if the drugs could work for patients."
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