March 16, 2010 -- St. Jude Partners to ID Genetic Changes Resulting in Childhood Cancer
During an unprecedented Memphis winter by contemporary standards, St. Jude researchers were connecting on another unprecedented event: St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis announced a collaboration to identify the genetic changes that expose some of the worlds deadliest childhood cancers.

The primary task of the largest research project to date aimed at understanding the genetic origins of pediatric cancers: to decode the genomes of more than 600 childhood cancer patients who have contributed tumor samples for this historic project.

The $65 million, 3-year St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital-Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project$20 million from long-time St. Jude supporter Kays Jewelersshould help the medical community understand the genetic origins of childhood cancers, some of which have cure rates below 50 percent. Team scientists will sequence the entire genomes of both normal and cancer cells from each patient, comparing differences in the DNA to identify genetic missteps that lead to cancer.

We couldnt contemplate doing a project of this proportion five or 10 years ago, and now were on the threshold of a revolution in our understanding of the origins of cancer, said St. Jude CEO William E. Evans, MD. For the first time in history, we have the tools to identify all of the genetic abnormalities that turn a white blood cell into a leukemia cell or a brain cell into a brain tumor. We believe its from this foundation that advances for 21st century cancer diagnosis and treatment will come.

One of the world's largest and most complete repositories of biological information about childhood cancer, St. Jude has a collection of more than 50,000 tumor, bone marrow, blood and other biological samples dating back to the 1970s. These samples, essential for linking cancer origins, are accessible via tissue bank to St. Jude scientists, who are developing the experimental models expected to be vital for determining which mutations drive cancer's development and spread.

The partnership focuses on childhood leukemias, brain tumors and sarcomastumors of bone, muscle and other connective tissues. The St. Jude team will provide the DNA from tumor and normal tissues of patients. Washington University's Genome Center will provide the whole genome sequencing. Researchers at both institutions will participate in validation sequencing and collaborate to analyze the data and make validated information publicly available. Previous research by the team and other collaborators indicates that the many genetic abnormalities in childhood cancers differ from those found in adult cancers.

This extraordinary partnership will add a new dimension to our understanding of childhood cancers, noted pediatric geneticist Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor and dean of Washington University School of Medicine. A genome-wide understanding of cancer offers great promise for developing powerful new approaches to diagnose and treat cancer or perhaps even to prevent it. In the short term, the project will yield key genetic information that may ultimately help physicians choose the best treatment options for young cancer patients.

Two years ago, scientists at Washington University's Genome Center pioneering whole-genome sequencing of cancer patients' genomes became the first to decode the complete genome of a cancer patienta woman with leukemiaand trace her disease to its genetic roots. Since then, they have sequenced the genomes of additional cancer patients, including those with breast, lung and ovarian tumors, and glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor. These studies have identified intriguing and unexpected genetic connections between patients with various types of cancer that likely would not have been discovered using conventional approaches.

Previous cancer mutation identification research has generally focused on only a few hundred genes already suspected of being involved in the disease. Even though a few recent studies have involved sequencing the 20,000 or so protein-coding genes in the genome, the whole-genome approach involved in the St. Jude-Washington University initiative provides a more detailed and complete picture of all mutations involved in a patient's cancer by examining both the protein-coding genes and the long stretches of DNA between genes, which may influence how the genes work. Such complete genomic sequencing is now possible because of recent advances making technology faster and far less expensive.

Team researchers involved in the project also will investigate how pediatric cancer is influenced by variations in the genome, including epigenetic changes, which alter the expression of genes but not the genes themselves. They will also use DNA sequencing data to identify genetic markers that may help physicians determine the best treatment options for cancer patients, based on the genetic profile of their tumors.

The pediatric genome project will result in a public database where information, once validated, will be shared with the international scientific community, with the goal of accelerating progress against childhood cancer