Cancer breakthrough claimed

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 44

Cancer breakthrough claimed

NZPA-AAP Brisbane A team of Queensland medical researchers says it has made a discovery which could lead to earlier detection of cancer. In a world-first discovery, the researchers have found unique genetic changes in tumours in people with BeckwithWeideman syndrome, a condition associated with increased incidence of certain cancers. The syndrome involves abnormal development of one side of the body and other abnormalities in both .children and adults. *7

The discovery will help scientists understand the steps thought to lead to development of cancer and could help in early detection of cancer. Professor Peter Smith, head of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research-Royal Children’s Hospital research team, said abnormal genes rather than environment could cause cancer in children.

“There is a strong genetic component in development of cancer in children,” he said. “Since such malignancies occur in very young

children there is not much time for environmental influences to act on the child.”

Another project involving the Q.I.M.R. and University of Queensland will examine the drug resistance of cancer. . Professor Smith said 50 per cent of child leukaemia sufferers could not be cured, almost always because they did not respond to drugs. “Fifteen years ago leukaemia was a death sentence for children,” he said.

“One focus of our study is to discover why some

children are cured by anti-cancer drugs used in chemotherapy while others fail to respond to the treatment. “We believe that cancer develops in a multistep fashion and that many of these ‘steps’ are in place before the cancer occurs.

“If we can identify cause of those steps we might be able to identify children who are at risk long before they get cancer.”

He said early detection of childhood cancer and improved methods of treatment would mean a higher survival rate. ,