Research Programs-Cancer Genetics

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The Cancer Genetics Program (CGP) was founded in 1995 as a developing program, with the YCC providing seed money to hire a genetic counselor, initiate a coordinated clinical and research endeavor, and fund a portion of the Program Leader's effort. In 1996, a supplement was obtained to initiate a core facility for acquiring clinical data and biological specimens from cancer families. Under the leadership of Dr. Alan Bale, the Program has nearly doubled in size since its inception, and now includes 17 faculty members representing 8 departments. Cancer Genetic Counseling has grown to include 4 counselors and now functions as a Shared Resource, providing counseling services for research studies as well as for clinical support. The central themes of this program are identification of genes underlying hereditary cancer predisposition, studying the role of these genes in sporadic cancer, elucidating gene function, and applying novel research findings to diagnosis, disease management, and rational drug development. An example of the type of research this program supports is cloning the gene for the basal cell nevus syndrome (BCNS), elucidating the function of the gene using Drosophila as a model organism, and conducting an NCI-supported, phase I clinical trial using a drug specifically targeting this key molecular defect in skin cancer. The same strategy is being applied to a variety of other malignancies. The Program thus serves as a bridge between the Cancer Prevention & Control Program >(CPCP) and the Gene Regulation & Functional Genomics Program (GRFGP). While our Program members use molecular tools to identify and characterize the function of genes that is responsible for hereditary predisposition to cancer, GRFGP is charged with characterizing the genetic and epigenetic changes in sporadic tumors. Since many of the same genes play a role in both sporadic and hereditary cancer, discoveries by members of either program have clear relevance to the other. A new joint project of these two programs is microarray-based sequencing of all cancer predisposition genes. Together with CPCP, our Members also participate in efforts to examine the interplay of environmental and genetic factors in cancer risk, notably ovarian and skin cancer. The skin cancer work is part of a P50 SPORE relating common genetic variants of skin color and environmental risk factors. The Program members research funding over the past year include totaling $4.7 million direct costs ($6.67 million total costs) of which $1.2 million direct costs ($1.7 million total costs) is from the NCI. Over the past 7 years, the Program has published over peer-reviewed 164 articles of which approximately 39% resulted from interprogrammatic collaboration and 9.1% resulted from intraprogrammatic collaboration.