A team of researchers at UCD is aiming to find the group of genes responsible for the growth of abnormal cells causing breast cancer. The disease affects around 1,600 Irishwomen each year, with 650 dying from it.
Headed by Dr David Easty and Prof Peter Dervan, the team is one of 18 funded by the Irish Cancer Society, the major voluntary funder of cancer research.
The society recently announced allocations of research funds worth more than £320,000 for 1999, the largest it has awarded, representing a 50 per cent increase on last year's total. The grants were divided between seven new and 11 continuing projects in universities, major teaching hospitals and research institutes.
Dr Easty, who lectures in the pathology department in UCD, says there are only a small number of "important decisions" a cell can make - it can divide/replicate, commit suicide, become specialised or stop growing. These processes are controlled, he says, by "signalling pathways" and it is these processes that can go wrong causing cancer.
Two sets of enzymes control signalling pathways, he says, those which add a phosphate to the cell - PTK - and which take it away - PTP.
PTKs are onconogenes, causing cancer. "We've known this for 20 years. At the same time we have long suspected that PTPs would be tumour-suppressor genes (genes which stop cancer cells from growing)," he says. This remained unproven and untested for years up until late year when the first PTP tumour-suppressor gene was found.
"Since PTPs act in the opposite fashion, taking phosphate away, it is likely that they are tumour-suppressors, stopping cancer from forming. "The idea is that the PTPs are lost from cancer cells allowing tumours to grow.
"We now believe that there must be other PTP tumour-suppressor genes and our aim is to isolate and test these."
Having isolated the genes, the next thing, he says, is to compare breast cancer cells with normal cells, to examine if there are proteins present. "If they are not present in the cancer cells but are present in the normal cells, maybe they are tumour-suppressors. If we find a difference, we could eventually put these genes back into the cells expecting it to stop the growth of cancer cells.
"Down the line it could be used to treat patients.'
Dr Easty is assisted in the project by two students, Ms Marian Rafferty and Ms Linda McArdle. The project received £10,000 from the Irish Cancer Society.
In another project, Dr Raymond Stallings at the National Centre for Medical Genetics in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin is investigating the chromosome abnormalities which occur in hepatoblastoma. This is the most frequently occurring tumour of the liver in children, and is almost always fatal.
"By investigating the differences between types of genetic abnormality in children with cancer of the liver and the corresponding level of tumour aggression resulting, we hope to assist doctors in determining the best courses of treatment," says Dr Stallings, who received £15,000 for the project.
The chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, Mr Barry Dempsey, says that with the increase of 50 per cent in funds allocated, the society has outlined its commitment "to being at the vanguard of research", identifying the causes of various cancers and seeking improved methods of diagnosis and treatment.
"Funding has been allocated to the most viable research projects that are relevant to Ireland and which serve the international fight against cancer by acting as a critical component of the work carried out around the globe.
"We see that there have been huge improvements in the treatment of, for example, leukaemias and testicular cancer. This could only have happened through ongoing investment in research," he says.