Centres of Research Excellence Fund

2006 Expressions of Interest

Centre for Translational Cancer Research

Director:   Prof. Anthony Reeve
Host:         University of Otago

Partners:    Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
                  AgResearch Limited
                  Pacific Edge Biotechnology Ltd
                  The University of Auckland

Abstract:

The New Zealand Cancer Genome Centre will exploit opportunities presented by the Human Genome Project to expose the underlying biology and the responses of the body to malignant progression in cancers that are especially important to New Zealanders. Powered by the new high throughput genome technologies, the Centre will place cancer genetics and cancer immunology within a continuum covering clinical investigation and a national clinical trials network. 

In the modern era of cancer treatment there have been inspiring triumphs, but a disproportionate number of bitter lessons.

We now know that drugs precisely delivered to molecular targets on the cancer cell can save lives, that early detection provides the simplest path to patient survival, that the body’s own immune system can be manipulated to eliminate disease, and that, with the right diagnostic tools, conventional cancer treatment can be individualised to radically improve the outcome for the patient.

However, because of the often baffling complexity of cancer, these successes have been limited to too few cancer types, and too few patients. Perhaps just as importantly, systematic frailties in the way research knowledge is disseminated, and the way different cancer research disciplines communicate, the incremental gains made in the research laboratory all too rarely reach the hospital oncology wards.

The Centre will bring together scientists and clinicians from across New Zealand, enhanced by significant collaborations with elite international cancer groups. The Centre will provide unique training opportunities for young scientists and clinicians, and provide them with national and international networks which will support them through a life of research and clinical practice. This highly coordinated, multidisciplinary team will develop an integrated strategic research and clinical programme to convert ground-breaking research into nationwide improvements in the diagnosis, management and treatment of New Zealand's most pressing cancer problems, in particular, melanoma, colorectal and gastric cancer.