Record cancer funds

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Tags: cancer, discovery, funding, IMB, winter-2009

UQ scientists will use a record research grant to give new hope to patients with two of Australia’s most fatal cancers.

Associate Professor Sean Grimmond

In March the Australian Government pledged $27.5 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to fund a cancer genome sequencing program for pancreatic and ovarian cancers. This is the largest-ever NHMRC grant.

The program aims to revolutionise understanding of pancreatic and ovarian cancers and provide new treatment avenues.

“This is our best chance to develop effective treatment and prevention strategies for cancer,” said the program director, Associate Professor Sean Grimmond of UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. Dr Grimmond leads Australia’s contribution to the International Cancer Genome Consortium, which involves teams from around the world sequencing 50 tumour types from 25,000 patients.

Pancreatic cancer, the primary target, is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer in the developed world and takes the life of the average patient within six months of diagnosis. Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in Australian women. It lacks a screening test and is often not discovered until it has spread beyond the ovary, making treatment difficult.

“We will combine the resources of countries and laboratories worldwide to create a map of the genetic changes that lead to cancer,” Dr Grimmond said.

“This will act as a huge information resource for medical researchers internationally, and should allow for more rapid, personalised treatments for cancer sufferers.”

The government funding is part of a five-year package valued at more than $40 million. Essential contributions are also coming from Applied Biosystems, Silicon Graphics (SGI), the Cancer Council NSW and UQ.

Key partners in the program are the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the Australian Genome Research Facility.

The project will run in collaboration with the Ontario Cancer Institute in Canada and the US Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, with investigators from the University of California San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University.

By Bronwyn Adams

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