The National Cancer Institute has awarded the University about $3.7 million to establish a cancer genetics research consortium involving researchers from Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Emory University. The Medical Center News Office announced last Thursday that the new center will join eight similar facilities nationwide to establish a comprehensive database on the genetics basis of cancer development.
Dubbed the Carolina-Georgia Genetics Institute, the new facility will cover the Southeast, explained Dr. Dirk Iglehart, director of the institute and a professor of surgery at the Medical Center.
The result will be an increased potential for collaboration among researchers. Within the center, scientists will be seeking a better understanding of cancer susceptibility genes, starting with breast and colon cancers.
"It's a program that's recognizing the increasing importance of cancer genetics," said Iglehart.
In January, Duke discovered that its application was ranked first in the country; the resulting five-year grant, which awards Duke about $180,000 each year in direct research costs and both UNC-CH and Emory $120,000 per year, became effective Aug. 1.
The award also covers additional expenses including the indirect costs of buildings and other infrastructure used in the research.
The consortium plans to spend the next year establishing and synchronizing the procedures and databases necessary to perform the research. Iglehart said the Medical Center already has an established cancer genetics database for its breast cancer program. This database will now be expanded for use by the three schools.
Both Iglehart and Dr. Theresa Gillespie, director of Emory's Winship Cancer Center, said that the group also plans to address questions of education and counseling patients.
Research at the new center will begin in about a year and the center plans to focus first on breast and colon cancers. Previous cancer genetic studies have been in very specific types of populations, Gillespie said. "This would be a chance to look at the [entire] population level, so we can access more and more people to see what the risk is," she said. "In short, there is a very limited number of people who participate in genetic testing today."
She added that the average person does not receive testing that looks for a specific cancer susceptibility gene. Instead, patients are limited to those who believe they might be at a higher risk, often due to a familial cancer case. During the first stage of the process researchers create a pedigree, or map, of the disease in the proposed subject's family tree. If the cancer is common, Gillespie explained, further tests are then performed.
"Depending on the disease, [a positive result] means a greatly increased chance of getting the disease during your lifetime," Iglehart said.
Currently, researchers cannot conclusively determine the likelihood that a patient with a cancer susceptibility gene will contract the disease. A larger patient database may aid this endeavor.
"We can assess more and more people to see what the risk is," Gillespie said.
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