Young cancer researchers recognised

Cure Cancer Australia has announced the winners of its 2005 young researcher awards, which recognise outstanding cancer researchers in the early stages of their career.

Dr Andrew Biankin, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, won Cure Cancer Australia's National Young Researcher of the Year Award, a $15,000 prize sponsored by the Macquarie Bank Foundation, for his research on the molecular pathology of pancreatic cancer.

Biankin's research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of pancreatic cancer development and progression with the aim of providing improved treatments for this disease and better patient outcomes.

Pancreatic cancer is 98 per cent lethal; 90 per cent of patients die within the first year of being diagnosed and the rest survive for only two to three years.

Biankin said current treatments are inadequate and radical operation is the only procedure that is effective. However, only 10-20 per cent of patients can be operated on and of these only 10 per cent survive for five to 10 years. One aim of Biankin's work is to find molecular markers that will identify this 10 per cent of patients.

"One reason for this dismal survival rate is because of late diagnosis," said Biankin. "A two centimeter cancer in the pancreas is considered an early diagnosis whereas a two centimeter cancer in the breast is considered advanced."

Biankin is also looking for molecular markers to identify precursor lesions in the pancreas, called pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN). "If we can characterise and understand the underlying mechanisms of PanIN then we may be able to develop better diagnostics, therapeutics, screening methods, and perhaps even chemoprevention strategies so that we can stop these lesions progressing to invasive cancer," said Biankin.

From experiments that looked at the global gene expression in pancreatic cancer, Biankin identified abherrations in the retinoic acid signaling pathway -- there is also some evidence to suggest that this also occurs in breast cancer.

"Something is wrong in the retinoic signaling pathway that may enable the cancer to develop," said Biankin. "Retinoic acid signaling is involved in cell differentiation. If it is blocked then the cells may dedifferentiate, and this may be occurring in the earlier stages of pancreatic cancer.

"We're also finding that pathways that are important in the development of the pancreas in the embryo seem to be reactivated in pancreatic cancer," he added.

For example, the Notch and Hedgehog signaling pathways that are silenced in the adult are reactivated in pancreatic cancer. Biankin said drugs are currently being tested to block these pathways in preclinical models using transgenic mice.

Dr Terence Poon, from University of Sydney and the Royal North Shore Hospital, won the young researcher clinical award, a $10,000 prize sponsored by Novartis Oncology Australia, for his work on skin cancer; and David Bryant from the Institute of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland won the young brilliance award for research students valued at $5000 for his research on the initial process of normal breast cells becoming cancerous and metastasising.

The award money is to be spent on furthering research or furthering the researchers' knowledge about their area of research.

Cure Cancer Australia has a specific focus on funding cancer researchers and, as well as these awards, they fund an annual grant program.

"The money goes direct to researchers," said Lyn Stroud, executive director of Cure Cancer Australia. "The researcher gets to use the money on their specific project. Our mission is to support young scientists who push the boundaries and are working in areas of breakthrough to unravel the riddles of cancer cells."