After 2013, a national genetic database on cancer will be created
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In the pilot phase, the project will cover 9,000 people, and the national system itself will be created after 2013.
This September, the United Kingdom will start the first phase of the Stratified Medicine Program, organized by the charitable organization Cancer Research UK with the support of the British government, as well as AstraZeneca and Pfizer. Beginning involves the creation of a personalized genetic database on cancer.
The material remaining after the biopsy of 9,000 cancer patients (suffering from breast, rectal, lung, prostate, ovarian and skin) will be sent regularly to three specialized centers and subjected to genetic research. Scientists from the National Health System (NHS) and private companies, having access to a large amount of data, will be able to investigate the changes that occur over time in cancer cells. Thanks to the individualization of genetic profiling, patients who will (in the second stage of the project) benefit from medicines developed personally for them will ultimately benefit.
The second stage of the Stratified Medicine Program, which will be deployed in 2013, involves the creation of a nationwide British database for all cancer patients. "The ability to work with a sample of 3,000 patients, having access to information about the DNA research of their tumors, medical history, information on treatment methods and medicines used, is priceless," said Dr Gareth Morgan, a hematologist from the Institute for Cancer Research in London (one of the "technological nodes" of the project, where the material for analysis will fall).
British scientists are eagerly awaiting the deployment of the system, because they know from experience how useful and effective such databases are. The database of the General Practice Research Database (GRPD), which receives anonymous information from British therapists, has repeatedly proved its uniqueness in conducting scientific research.
Systems like those in Britain already exist in other countries, but their coverage is inferior to what is planned for the Stratified Medicine Program: in the US, there are databases in private clinics; French National Cancer Institute (INCa) is conducting a program of collecting samples of tumor tissues in patients with certain cancers (melanoma, lung and rectum cancer) ...
The uniqueness of the Stratified Medicine Program lies in the fact that the system being created is oriented to the needs of both researchers and treating physicians and their patients.
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