Bone cancer, from the lab to the clinic

Dual approach will find mutations in osteosarcoma and develop tools to monitor disease in patients

2011-06-08

(Press-News.org) A new study into osteosarcoma - cancer of the bone - will use advances in genomic research and analysis to identify new genes that give rise to the condition and to create personalised blood tests for children and young adults with the condition. The study is funded by Skeletal Action Cancer Trust, SCAT.

It is hoped that the results of this new study will help doctors improve treatment of this difficult disease through better diagnosis and monitoring of this bone cancer.

Each year approximately 80 children and young adults develop osteosarcoma in the UK. This painful cancer of the bone tends to affect children and young adults and is normally treated using chemotherapy and surgery. The causes of the disease are not well known and measuring response to treatment relies on scanning and imaging. The new study seeks to bring both greater understanding to processes of developing the condition and create improved methods of measuring disease regression.

"We hope that this research project will improve the way patients with cancer are monitored and will guide the best drug treatment for the cancer in each patient," says Professor Adrienne Flanagan from the UCL Cancer Institute, and Medical Director of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), "It is really important that we exploit new tools that emerge from cutting-edge research to see how they can benefit patients with bone tumours in the future."

"We need the support of patients and of the wider public to make our aim of moving towards delivery of personalised cancer treatment a reality."

Professor Flanagan, consultant pathologist at the RNOH and scientist at UCL Cancer Institute, worked with colleagues from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, in which they discovered a novel cancer-causing mutation in chondrosarcoma, the second most common cancer of bone. The results of this study were published recently online in the The Journal of Pathology.

In this new programme, scientists will use recently developed methods to hunt for changes in the genomes of cancer patients, trying to pinpoint genes underlying in the disease. At the same time, they will develop new tools to monitor the disease in patients through the course of treatment. They hope that their methods, which look for tumour-specific DNA in the bloodstream of patients, will become routine for patients in the future.

"Currently, the response of patients with osteosarcomas to treatment is monitored by scanning tumours using imaging techniques," says Dr Peter Campbell. "In contrast, blood cancers have long been monitored using simple tests that pick up recurring mutations in tumour cells in the blood and show how a patient is responding to treatment. The new project aims to see if we could develop and apply similar methods to osteosarcomas".

The patients are being treated at the RNOH and University College London Hospital (London Sarcoma Service), and the research project is largely funded by SCAT Bone Cancer Trust based at the RNOH, with contributions from other charities including the Bone Cancer Research Trust, Rosetrees and others. The research is being carried out in collaboration with UCL Cancer Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

The team will sequence the complete genome of 50 patients with osteosarcoma and will look in their plasma in many of these patients before and after chemotherapy treatment to find rearrangements - shuffled chunks of DNA - in the small amounts of DNA that have leaked out from the osteosarcoma into the bloodstream. They will be searching for rearrangements that are specific to each patient.

By developing a picture of the unique profile of mutations of each patient's cancer and then using these mutations to monitor the amount of cancer derived DNA circulating in the blood, the clinicians hope they can deliver treatments to patients in a personalised way

In addition to seeking improvements in treatment, the researchers are looking for novel genes giving rise to osteosarcoma. The team will sequence in full the gene-containing regions of the genome in 100 osteosarcoma samples.

"The future of cancer genetics lies ultimately in drawing a complete picture of each and every mutation for each and every cancer patient who visits a hospital," says Professor Mike Stratton, Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and one of the project leaders. "But there are a number of steps on the way. By concentrating in this study on the so called 'active' areas in the genome we can begin to pick out mutations that might be driving cancer even as we embark on the journey towards comprehensive catalogues of mutations for this, and a whole range of other human cancers."

Ultimately, the team on the osteosarcoma study will generate complete genome sequences for the whole genomes of osteosarcomas - allowing them to look in even finer detail at the spectrum of mutations in the cancer and distinguish the cancer causing mutations from the innocent bystanders.

"The research is promising, but its success relies on continued support from the public," says Mr Steve Cannon, bone tumour surgeon at the RNOH and Chairman of SCAT, the Bone Cancer Trust. "It is great that we have been able to get this project up and running, but donations will continue to be necessary if we are to succeed in the fight against osteosarcoma and other bone cancers. In what is without doubt an exciting and important moment in the application of genetic science in cancer research, it is only right that we should be looking to apply the cutting edge tools that are now available to bone cancer."

"Osteosarcoma is an aggressive cancer; we need an aggressive approach to tackle its effects." ###

Notes to Editors

Related research

Amary MF et al. (2011) IDH1 and IDH2 mutations are frequent events in central chondrosarcoma and central and periosteal chondromas but not in other mesenchymal tumours. The Journal of Pathology
First published online: 19 May 2011
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/path.2913

Scat Bone Cancer Trust is dedicated to the advancement of bone cancer research, to providing the best possible care and support at each stage of treatment and to improving the quality and dignity for life for all patients. http://scatbonecancertrust.org/

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) is the largest specialist orthopaedic hospital in the UK and is regarded as a leader in the field of orthopaedics. The Trust provides a comprehensive and unique range of neuro-musculoskeletal healthcare, ranging from acute spinal injuries to orthopaedic medicine and specialist rehabilitation for chronic back pain sufferers. http://www.rnoh.nhs.uk/

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, which receives the majority of its funding from the Wellcome Trust, was founded in 1992. The Institute is responsible for the completion of the sequence of approximately one-third of the human genome as well as genomes of model organisms and more than 90 pathogen genomes. In October 2006, new funding was awarded by the Wellcome Trust to exploit the wealth of genome data now available to answer important questions about health and disease. http://www.sanger.ac.uk

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk

Contact details

Don Powell Press Officer
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
Tel +44 (0)1223 496 928
Mobile +44 (0)7753 7753 97
Email press.office@sanger.ac.uk

Anna Fox Communications and Foundation Trust Liaison Officer
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust
Tel 020 8909 5349
Email anna.fox@rnoh.nhs.uk

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Cuts are likely to hit charities harder than expected

2011-06-08

Around one third of voluntary and charitable organisations in England receive public money to support their work and over 20,000 organisations say that the public sector is their most important source of income according to initial findings of research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). "It is very clear that public funding is more important to voluntary organisations than previously thought," says Professor John Mohan of the Third Sector Research Centre, who led the study. "And this is particularly true for those organisations working in deprived ...

Chernobyl revisited: Virtual issue explores ecological effects of nuclear disasters

2011-06-08

The decision of the German government to phase out nuclear power by 2022 has reopened an energy debate that has far wider implications than Germany or Japan, which is still coming to terms with events at the damaged Fukushima plant. This virtual issue, published by the SETAC journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry adds to that debate by exploring the ecological effects of radiation, using research from the Chernobyl disaster. The issue is a freely accessible resource for researchers that offers a historical precedent for considering the long-term environmental ...

Fetal exposure to BPA changes development of uterus in primates

2011-06-08

Exposure in the womb to bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical widely used in the food and medical industries, causes changes in female primates' uterus development, new research suggests. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston. "Previous studies have shown that BPA can affect the reproductive tract. However, because the studies were done in rodents, it was uncertain if this would also be true in humans," said Carmen Williams, MD, PhD, a clinical investigator with the National Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIEHS), ...

Older age does not cause testosterone levels to decline in healthy men

2011-06-08

A decline in testosterone levels as men grow older is likely the result—not the cause—of deteriorating general health, say Australian scientists, whose new study finds that age, in itself, has no effect on testosterone level in healthy older men. The results, to be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston, are the first findings released from the Healthy Man Study, according to principal investigator David Handelsman, MD, PhD, professor and director of the ANZAC Research Institute at the University of Sydney. "Some researchers believe ...

Excessive pregnancy weight gain raises the risk of having a fat baby

2011-06-08

Women who gain too much weight during pregnancy tend to have newborns with a high amount of body fat, regardless of the mother's weight before pregnancy, a new study finds. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston. High fat at birth is a possible risk factor for childhood obesity, said the study's principal investigator, Jami Josefson, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital and assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Previous studies have shown ...

Teens with type 2 diabetes already show possible signs of impaired heart function

2011-06-08

Heart function may be affected in people with Type 2 diabetes as early as adolescence, according to a new study that will be presented Sunday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston. "Past studies in adults with Type 2 diabetes show that their heart and blood vessels' ability to adapt to exercise may be impaired. Our study shows that these changes in heart function may begin to happen very early after Type 2 diabetes occurs," said the study's lead author, Teresa Pinto, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Dalhousie University IWK Health Centre in Halifax, ...

Study: What mom thinks matters when it comes to mental illness

2011-06-08

WASHINGTON, DC, June 7, 2011 — A new study led by a Northern Illinois University sociologist shows that while family members often provide critical support, they also can sometimes be the source of stigmatizing attitudes that impede the recovery of mentally ill relatives. "Negative attitudes of family members have the potential to affect the ways that mentally ill persons view themselves, adversely influencing the likelihood of recovery from the illness," said lead researcher Fred Markowitz, an NIU professor of sociology. Markowitz and his colleagues, Beth Angell from ...

Cash talks when overbooked hotel guests walk

2011-06-08

Cash bonuses can help hotel operators lure back disappointed customers who were displaced during overbooking snags, according to Penn State researchers. In an experiment, participants said they were more satisfied with cash compensation than a voucher if they lost stays at a hotel due to overbooking, said Breffni Noone, assistant professor of hospitality management. "A lot of people in the hotel industry ask the question: 'What do I do to compensate customers who have been turned away because of overbooking?' " said Noone. "The results suggest cash-based overcompensation ...

Researchers discover biochemical weakness of malaria parasite -- vaccine to be developed

2011-06-08

Every year, 10,000 pregnant women and up to 200,000 newborn babies are killed by the malaria parasite. Doctors all around the globe have for years been looking in vain for a medical protection, and now researchers from the University of Copenhagen have found the biochemically weakness of the lethal malaria parasite, and will now start developing a vaccine to combat pregnancy related malaria. The malaria parasite travels via the spit of an infected mosquito to the liver of the new host, where it spreads to the red blood corpuscles and starts to reproduce itself. "Pregnant ...

People judge therapists by their offices, study shows

2011-06-08

COLUMBUS, Ohio – People may judge the quality and qualifications of psychotherapists simply by what their offices look like, a new study suggests. After only viewing photos of offices, study participants gave higher marks to psychotherapists whose offices were neat and orderly, decorated with soft touches like pillows and throw rugs, and which featured personal touches like diplomas and framed photos. "People seem to agree on what the office of a good therapist would look like and, especially, what it wouldn't look like," said Jack Nasar, co-author of the study and ...

Bone cancer, from the lab to the clinic

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: