Queen’s leads €6million European study to combat bowel cancer
Queen’s University has announced it is to lead a €6 million European study to find
new treatments for bowel cancer.
The research, which involves 13 partners in eight different European countries, will
look at two major genetic factors which make bowel cancer difficult to treat.
Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, is the second major cause of cancer
mortality. It is the third most common cause of cancer in Europe, with over 200,000
deaths per year. Currently over 50 per cent of colorectal cancer patients develop an
aggressive form of the disease which spreads quickly and does not respond to
standard therapy. Patients’ survival more than five years after diagnosis of this form
of colorectal cancer is less than five per cent.
The new research, which takes place under a recently established European
Consortium (MErCuRIC), led by Queen’s University and funded by the European
Commission’s Framework VII Programme, will build on recent studies which have
increased the understanding of what goes wrong in the colorectal cancer cell.
The new study is aiming to develop new diagnostics and therapies through a
programme of research which will include a translational clinical trial of over 1000
people and involving a number of SME and industrial partners including Pfizer.
Dr Sandra van Schaeybroeck, Co-Ordinator of the Research Programme from the
Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (CCRCB) at Queen’s, said: “Our
research has identified two key genes that are contributing to the aggressive spread
of colorectal cancer. The research being carried out by MErCuRIC will allow us to
bring this research to the next level by developing and conducting a clinical trial that
targets the products of these two genes in patients with metastic or aggressive
colorectal cancer.”
The pan European clinical trial component of the Programme of Research is being
led by the University of Oxford. Professor Tim Maughan from the University of
Oxford and who has led a number of key clinical trials programmes in colorectal
cancer, said: “This is an important study which has the potential to develop new
approaches to treat patients who have what is essentially an incurable disease.
Bringing together world leading researchers from across Europe has the potential to
make important developments in the war against this very aggressive form of
cancer.”
Professor David Waugh, Director of the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell
Biology at Queen’s, said: “At a local level, the collaborative nature of the research
that led up to the successful grant award, involving the CCRCB and the Belfast
Health and Social Care Trust, emphasises the importance of a bench to bedside
continuum linking the researcher and the clinician, with the patient at the centre of
this process.”
The Consortium brings together world leading researchers from the UK, Ireland,
Spain, Belguim, France, Italy and the Czech Republic
For further information visit http://mercuric.eu/
Ends
Media inquiries to Claire O’Callaghan, Queen’s University Communications
Office, Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 5391 email: c.ocallaghan@qub.ac.uk
Notes to Editors:
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Dr Sandra van Schaeybroeck , Professor Mark Lawler and Dr Richard Wilson
from Queen’s University are available for interview. Interview bids to Queen’s
Communications Office.
Prof Tim Maughan from University of Oxford is also available for interview.
The launch will take place at Riddel Hall, Queen’s University at 6pm on
Wednesday 11 December 2013.
For further information on the MErCuRIC visit http://mercuric.eu/
Full list of partners include:
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Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland, UK
Vall Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona Spain
University of Oxford, England, UK
University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Velindre National Health Service Trust, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
University Paris Decartes, Paris, France
University of Torino, Turin, Italy
Hospitaux de Paris, Paris, France
Multiplicom, Brussels, Belgium
University of Masarykova, Czech Republic
Pintail, Dublin, Ireland
Pfizer
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