AustCancer in gene test partnership

Australian Cancer Technology (ASX:ACU) has partnered with Prof Ursula Kees at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research to develop a diagnostic test able to rapidly screen tumour samples for deleted tumour suppressor genes.

The company will work with Kees to develop and commercialise the patented technology, which uses PCR-based techniques to accurately and quantitatively measure genes of interest against a control gene in a simple, rapid and cost-effective test.

"Testing cancer cells to determine whether a gene is missing has always been considered very difficult because patient specimens always contain normal cells, and the genetic differences that we're looking for are very subtle. This new technology can detect those very small differences," said Kees. "We can test for the absence of the gene in samples containing normal cells in addition to tumour cells."

In the original study performed by researchers at the Institute, the test was developed using tumour suppressor gene p16. Kees' research has shown that children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia have an 11-fold higher rate of relapse if the p16 gene is lost.

But by knowing that the gene is absent when the cancer is diagnosed, more aggressive chemotherapy can be used from the outset of treatment.

Now, with the support of AustCancer, Kees' team will work on expanding the test to include other genes.

"We have two main interests at the moment -- which tumour suppressor genes to use, and which patient groups would benefit the most from the test," Kees said. "At the moment we're looking at all candidate tumour suppressor genes causing problems in all cancers in adults and children."

She said the focus was currently on four or five genes in particular, where there was a body of evidence supporting a key role in cancer.

AustCancer managing director Paul Hopper said he expected it to take a couple of years to commercialise the diagnostic test. He noted that the test complemented the company's core Pentrix cancer vaccine program, which targets the p53 gene. A Phase IIb clinical trial for the vaccine is expected to begin in Melbourne in February 2004.