Scientists moot new global cancer effort

ScienceDaily — Scientists are proposing an international effort, on the scale of the Human Genome Project (HGP), to identify all the proteins present in cancer cells.

HGP was the international scientific research project that identified and mapped all the genes in humans. Within a decade, they believe, results of the new effort could provide cancer patients with more effective treatments customised to their own biology.

The perspective appears in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research.

Cristobal Belda-Iniesta and colleagues point out that medicine already is moving toward individual treatments instead of a “one size fits all” strategy. Doctors currently use information from tissue biopsies, medical imaging, and other sources to select the most effective treatment for each patient.

Analysing protein biomarkers in each patient would be a major advance, since these proteins could allow doctors to determine how a particular cancer might respond to a specific drug. Scientists already have identified hundreds of these cellular calling cards, and now must identify more and begin applying the knowledge in treating patients.

Accomplishing it will require an international effort to identify these cancer-related proteins with collaboration among hospitals, research centres, and governments from around the world. Doctors would collect blood samples from patients with the major forms of cancer prior to surgery or during drug treatment for cancer in order to profile the proteins associated with the success or failure of a specific treatment, with cancer’s spread to distant sites in the body, and other factors. The results in improved treatments could begin to appear within 5 years of completing the project, they suggest.

How healthy cells turn into prostate cancer cells

ScienceDaily — A protein that is crucial for regulating the self-renewal of normal prostate stem cells, needed to repair injured cells or restore normal cells killed by hormone withdrawal therapy for cancer, also aids the transformation of healthy cells into prostate cancer cells, researchers at UCLA have found.

The findings, by researchers with the Eli and Edythe Broad Centre of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, may have important implications for controlling cancer growth and progression.

Done in primary cells and in animal models, the findings from the three-year study appear in the 2 December, 2010 in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell.

The protein, called Bmi-1, is often up-regulated in prostate cancer, has been associated with higher grade cancers and is predictive of poor prognosis, according to previous studies. However, its functional roles in prostate stem cell maintenance and prostate cancer have been unclear, said Dr. Owen Witte, who is director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Centre, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and senior author of the study.

A study of loss and gain of function in prostate stem cells indicated that Bmi-1 expression was required for self-renewal activity and maintenance of prostate stem cells with highly proliferative abilities. Loss of Bmi-1 expression blocks the self-renewal activity, protecting prostate cells from developing abnormal growth changes which can lead to cancer.

More importantly, Bmi-1 inhibition slowed the growth of an aggressive form of prostate cancer in animal models, in which the PTEN tumor suppressor gene was removed allowing the cancer to run wild, Witte said.

“We conclude by these results that Bmi-1 is a crucial regulator of self-renewal in adult prostate cells and plays important roles in prostate cancer initiation and progression,” Witte said. “It was encouraging to see that inhibiting this protein slows the growth of even a very aggressive prostate cancer, because that could give us new ways to attack this disease.”

Bayer expands research work to fight cancer in Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Bayer AG said on Thursday it had entered into five projects with scientists in Singapore to work on earlier diagnosis and treatment of cancers that are most prevalent in Asia.

Senior researchers at the German pharmaceutical giant also said they had identified five compounds which they hope can fight liver, stomach and colorectal cancer.

“Five compounds that have survived early identification fit into these three cancers with high prevalence in Asia,” Ludger Dinkelborg, head of Bayer’s diagnostic imaging research, said in an interview.

“We can’t predict if one of the five will make it. Of course, we want to make it to market, which is why we are here.”

Cancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, accounting for 7.4 million deaths in 2004. Topping the list is lung cancer, which killed 1.3 million people, followed by cancers of the stomach (803,000), colorectum (639,000) and liver (610,000).

The World Health Organisation projects there will be 12 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2030.

Faced with a string of patent expirations in the next few years, large pharmaceutical companies are looking to patients in emerging markets and taking an interest in diseases prevalent in these growing regions.

Monika Lessi, who handles Bayer’s external R&D policy and collaborations, said the five projects in Singapore will cover basic research from cell culture and animal studies to clinical trials.

“We have to improve early diagnosis, have more accurate staging and characterisation of the tumors and then we can have the right therapy for the right patient,” Dinkelborg added.

Bayer conducted 50 clinical trials in Asia in 2009 covering cardiovascular and women’s health, Alzheimer’s disease and imaging studies, compared to just five in 2005.