February 2008 transcript

00:00

Kat: Welcome to the Cancer Research UK podcast. This month we'll be finding out how discoveries made in the lab are transformed into the cancer drugs of the future. We'll be tracing the journey of drug discovery, from the test-tube to the clinic.

Coming up later, find out how your old clothes could help us to raise millions for our research. But first, here's the news with Josephine Querido.

00:59

Josephine: Cancer Research UK scientists have found that black British women in East London are diagnosed with breast cancer 21 years younger than white British women. This was the first UK study to look at the patterns of breast cancer in black British women.

Publishing their results in the British Journal of Cancer, the scientists also found that survival was poorer among black women with smaller tumours, and that their tumours were more likely to grow aggressively.

Kat spoke to lead researcher Dr Rebecca Bowen to find out the next steps for this research.

01:30

"Obviously we've got a small study here looking at one population. We’ve been unable to validate it for the whole of London as the Thames Cancer Registry doesn’t have sufficiently adequate ethnicity data for the time period we’ve looked at. Their ethnicity data is much better now, so we hope to have figures for the whole of London in the next few years.

My advice for any black women - or indeed any women - who are concerned about this finding would be to be breast aware. If you spot any new symptoms in your breast or armpit, then go straight to your doctor to get checked out.

Also any woman who receives an invitation for breast screening should go along and get screened, regardless of your ethnic background. Black women may need to be more vigilant, but everyone should be doing so."

03:14

Josephine:Scientists funded by Cancer Research UK in Leeds have found that radiotherapy is as effective as surgery for treating bladder cancer, the fifth most common cancer in the UK.

The finding is particularly relevant for elderly patients, because surgery to remove the bladder in this age group can have a severe impact on their quality of life.

Until now surgery has been thought to be the best treatment for bladder cancer that has spread to the muscle wall of the bladder, but these new results suggest that radiotherapy may be a better alternative, especially for older patients.

Cancer Research UK scientists have used the power of the immune system - in combination with a virus - to hunt and kill cancer cells in the lymph nodes, liver and spleen.

The researchers carried out experiments in mice using the vesicular stomatitis virus, normally found in horses and cattle, and published their results in the journal Nature Medicine.

The work is still at an early stage, and the next step will be to establish what side effects the treatment might have and if it can be made to work in humans as it does in mice.

And finally, Cancer Research UK is investing £10m in drug discovery projects at four universities across the UK. Researchers at Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, the University of Strathclyde and The School of Pharmacy in London will each receive £500,000 per year for the next five years to develop anti-cancer drugs.

The projects will range from developing therapies for leukaemia to discovering new drugs to beat drug resistance in breast and prostate cancer treatments.

Kat: And if you want find out more about these stories, or get the latest from the charity's scientists, and researchers around the world, then have a look at our News & Resources website.

04:12

Kat:At this time of year it's common to think about having a good Spring clean, but did you know that your old clothes, accessories or bric-a-brac could help to raise money for Cancer Research UK?

In partnership with TK Maxx stores across the country, this year's GiveGet campaign is promising to be the most successful ever. I spoke to Samira Chekkour, who's managing the campaign for Cancer Research UK, to find out more.

"Through GiveGet we ask people to clear out their homes and wardrobes and donate any quality items to Cancer Research UK, which are then sold in our shops to raise vital funds for our research.

The beauty of GiveGet is its simplicity - we’re not asking people to climb mountains or run marathons. You simply pick up a specially designed bag from any TK Maxx store - or just use any bin bag - fill it up with quality used items then take it along to any TK Maxx or Cancer Research UK store between the 23rd of February and the 9th of March.

We're hoping to raise as much as possible for Cancer Research UK through GiveGet. In 2004 and 2006 the combined amount of money we raised is in excess of £3.5 million pounds. In 2006 alone we raised £2.5 million, and in 2008 we really want to smash that target. All the funds raised from GiveGet 2008 will be dedicated to work to beat childhood cancers. Everybody can take part, and everybody can genuinely make a difference.

As a self-confessed shopaholic I have so many things that I can give away. My rule of thumb will be if I haven't worn it, used it or looked at it in 6 months, then it goes. And I would encourage everybody else to do the same thing!"

06:35

Cancer Research UK is dedicated to developing and testing new treatments for cancer. But have you ever wondered how we go from a drug being a "twinkle in a scientist's eye" to something that is used by doctors to treat patients?

In the first of a four part series, we sent Anna Lacey off in search of the origins of tomorrow's cancer drugs.

Drug Development part 1

When we talk about drugs for treating cancer, it's easy to think about tablets and other medications people receive in hospital. But all of these things are actually at the end of a very long line of research, involving people from biologists to chemists and medical doctors. So where would you start if you want to design a new drug? Here's the University of Cambridge's Professor Steve Jackson.

"There are various ways to approach this, but the approach my lab has taken over the past 17 years that we've been funded by Cancer Research UK is to try and understand what's happening in normal cells, and what has gone wrong in cancer cells at the molecular level. If you can understand the difference between cancer cells and normal cells it will suggest ways to target cancer cells and treat the diseases more effectively.

Every person has around 100 trillion cells, packed with DNA - the genetic information. The DNA in our cells is constantly being bombarded by things within our bodies and our environment that can damage DNA. Some of this damage is repaired easily, but the most toxic form of DNA damage is called a double strand break. You may remember the double helix structure of DNA - a double strand break happens when both strands of the helix are broken.

Usually a cell with a single double strand break will die if it can't repair it. But if the cell repairs the damage badly, it can leave mistakes, or mutations in genes. And if that mistake happens to be in a gene that controls cell growth, then this can cause the cell to ignore the normal rules and grow more rapidly, leading to cancer."

Although cancer cells are sometimes formed from bad DNA repair, once they've established in the body, they rely on good DNA repair as much as normal cells. This is because if a cancer cell can't fix its mutations, it will eventually die. With this in mind, Professor Jackson and his colleagues have been trying to find a way of blocking DNA repair in cancer cells.

"The reason why we want to do that is because most cancer therapies - radiotherapy and most chemotherapies - actually work by causing damage to the DNA in the cancer cells. So if you can find a way to stop the cancer cells from repairing that damage then you can make those treatments more effective."

Once people like Steve find a suitable drug target, it's the job of the chemists to find an effective drug. Unfortunately, it's a lot more complicated than picking something off a pharmacy shelf. Professor Paul Workman is the director of the CRUK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics.

"In the case of our centre, we actually make the drug compounds ourselves. Then we'll run some kind of screen, a test, with many thousands of compounds either in a computer or robotic machine. And that will feed us with small chemicals that act on the target we're interested in. They form the basis for the subsequent process of turning that compound from one that works on the target a little bit into a drug you can give to a patient.

To develop drugs that will work, biologists and chemists work closely together. Based on the results from the screen, biologists will test the chemicals and will tell the chemists which ones are most effective. Then it's a "make and test" process of starting off with a target, finding a chemical, testing it, making that chemical better.

Eventually the chemical not only has to be effective but it also has to be robust enough to survive - for example to be given to patients in a tablet form and not broken down by the liver or eliminated by the kidneys. So it's not just a chemical that will work on a target, but a drug that can be given to a patient."

But that journey to the patient is long. Many more months of testing lay ahead before the first patient receives the new drug during clinical trials. Although the first phase of drug development seems long-winded going back and forth between biologists and chemists, Professor Jackson thinks that drugs have a much better chance of reaching patients if they're built on solid research foundations.

"I think it's very important for an organisation like Cancer Research UK to not only do the clinical research but to carry out a lot of basic research. It’s the basic research that will help identify the types of areas in which you might want to develop drugs, and also identify which particular drugs you might want to develop.

Then it's for the clinical studies to show whether those predictions hold true. But it's through this basic molecular understanding that you'll get the best pointers."

Kat: Anna will be back next month to find out how researchers take the next step in the drug development journey - turning a promising molecule into an effective drug.

12:49

Kat: Before Christmas we highlighted Cancer Research UK's exciting new alternative gift site, Send and Give, which lets you buy anything from yeast to labcoats in support of our work.

I caught up with online fundraiser Lauren Young to find out what else is on offer from Send and Give. I started off by asking her if the site had been a success so far.

"We want to say a big thank you to our supporters because we raised over £400,000 with e-cards and alternative gifts combined. The gifts and cards are available all year round for any occasion throughout the year.

If people want to send something more physical, we have a new site called Give With Flowers. You can choose from bouquet of flowers and they can send it out on the same day. All the money raised from Give With Flowers and Send and Give will go towards our research."

Kat: And you can buy our alternative gifts and e-cards at www.SendandGive.org.uk.

14:00

We've reached the end once more so we hope you've enjoyed the podcast. Don't forget that your feedback is vital in helping us improve the show, so please send us your comments and suggestions by email to podcast@cancer.org.uk.

We’ll be back next month with all the latest news from Cancer Research UK, including a special celebrity message about cancer screening and the next part in our drug development series. Until then, goodbye!

• Credits:
• Presented and produced by Kat Arney
• News by Josephine Querido and Kat Arney
• Drug discovery package 1 by Anna Lacey
• Original music written and performed by Kat Arney and Henry Scowcroft
• With special thanks to all the participants