Dundee v. The Big C

Cellular hara-kiri

There are few centres of medical research in the world as prestigious and highly thought of as Dundee University. It boasts the second and third most quoted life scientists in the world, a third of its research team are amongst the world's top 1% in their field and it continues to pip both Oxbridge and University College, London to the post with regards to the number of citations from research papers. Indeed, a joint paper by three Dundee scientists has the prestige of being the most cited piece of research in Britain over the last ten years.

These Brahmins of science include pioneering professors in the fields of immunology, plant and environmental sciences, biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics and computer sciences. It's hardly surprising then that in such an environment one of today's biggest killers is marked. Dundee is recognised as having one of the best teams in Europe working on cell signalling, vital for understanding such diseases as cancer and it's also home to Professor Sir David Lane who co-discovered the tumour suppressor p53 and has been tipped for the Nobel Prize.

Not only has the work of Sir David and his colleagues established Dundee as a world leader in cancer research attracting leading scientists from Japan, the USA, Sweden and Bulgaria, it spurred the formation of Cyclacel Ltd in 1997, a cancer treatment company which is at the top of the global league for innovation.

Cyclacel collaborates with its home university and the University of Edinburgh and the second phase of clinical tests on the drug CYC202 is underway on the back of a successful phase one in which terminally ill patients with lung and pancreatic cancer saw their tumours stabilise after being given the drug.

The discovery of the anti-cancer gene p53 paved the way for CYC202 and the heartening news for cancer sufferers is that the drug has caused cancer cells to 'commit suicide' in more than half the patients who have been treated. Phase two studies are concentrating on breast and lung cancer patients and results are expected by June 2004.

Alastair Thompson, professor of surgical oncology at Dundee University has stated that if this leads to a new type of treatment it could be very exciting. The key significance of the drug, he claims, is its use of biomarkers or chemicals in the body to assess the progress of the tumour and the effects of treatment, which means that in future a blood test could take the place of removing tissue.

Edinburgh – world leader in stem cell technology

The glory is not all Dundee's in the fight against cancer. Stem cell technology is another promising theatre of war – against a host of diseases, including cancer. And Edinburgh, already home to some of the world's leading experts in the field of genome research, is punching above its weight.

Studying stem cells is helping scientists to understand how they transform into the dazzling array of specialized cells that make us what we are. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to problems that occur somewhere in this process. A better understanding of normal cell development could correct the errors that cause these medical conditions and a potential application is making cells and tissues for medical therapies.

Edinburgh University's Institute of Stem Cell Research (ISCR) recently received an award of $1.3 million from the American National Institute of Health (NIH) to fund research into animal stem cells. The American agency rarely gives awards outside the USA but has acknowledged that ISCR is a world leader in this new technology and is keen to help develop a new research programme.

Understanding cancer at the molecular level in Glasgow

Meanwhile in the West, there's a pincer movement underway. Two research programmes at the University of Glasgow are on the attack from different positions.

Scientists at the university's Cancer Research UK unit have uncovered a major clue towards solving how the molecule called Myc works. Myc cranks up the growth of dividing cancer cells by sending one of the cell's key factories into overdrive and is responsible for one in seven of all cancer deaths. Its method of working has been likened to a central manager of a number of different factories with the ability to send production lines into overdrive. The unit is working on preventing Myc sending out instructions, thus preventing cancer cells dividing and the design of a promising new anti-cancer drug could soon be in the offing.

Another team of Glasgow scientists are making a targeted approach to treating breast cancer using monoclonal antibodies The drug Herceptin, which blocks the function of HER2 (a specific cancer gene associated with aggressive cancer cell growth), has been approved for clinical use.

With all the above and still more approaches at concept stage (like the intriguing proposal from the Universities of Glasgow and Dundee in collaboration with Shell Global Solutions to develop an early screening 'breath test' for cancer) the combined efforts of Scottish scientists are well and truly placing cancer under siege.