US Genome Project planned to beat cancer

In a project expected to cost $US1.35 billion over nine years, the United States Government's proposed "Human Cancer Genome Project", will open a new front in the battle against cancer, say US health officials.

It is uncertain at present where the money will come from but the initiative is likely to start with some smaller pilot projects. The plan is to compile a complete catalogue of the genetic abnormalities that characterise cancer and will be greater in scale than the human genome project, which mapped the human genetic blueprint. It would seek to determine the DNA sequence of thousands of tumour samples, looking for mutations that give rise to cancer or sustain it. A databank of all these mutations, would be freely available to researchers and would provide invaluable clues for developing new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer.

Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute, a genetic research centre in Massachusetts that is affiliated with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says knowledge of the defects of the cancer cell points to the" Achilles' heel of tumours".

Some scientists are concerned about the cost and the possibility that a project of this scale could take money away from smaller ones run by individual scientists. Dr Craig Venter, who led a private project to determine the human DNA blueprint in competition with the human genome project, said it would make more sense to look at specific families of genes known to be involved in cancer.

Lander and other proponents say the time is right for such a project because the human genome project has provided the underlying human DNA sequence with which tumour cells can be compared. The cost of sequencing is dropping and the discovery of cancer-related genes has helped lead to new drug therapies.

Two agencies within the US National Institutes of Health would take the lead in financing the project and are eager to go ahead. "We are committed to do the sequencing of the cancer genomes," said Dr Anna Barker, deputy director at the National Cancer Institute. "What we're trying to do is accelerate progress against this disease."

Dr Lander recognises funding for the project might be hard in a time of tight budgets and said that new money would probably have to be appropriated by Congress. The pharmaceutical industry might also contribute because the information would be useful for drug development.

The project would determine the sequence of the DNA in at least 12,500 tumour samples, 250 samples from each of 50 major types of cancer. By comparing the order of the letters of the genetic code in the tumour samples with one another and with sequences in healthy tissue, it should be possible to pinpoint mutations responsible for cancer.