370
- Use knowledge from genome-wide association studies and chromosomal
instability to predict the progression from benign to malignant cancers and develop
molecular tests to identify genes associated with risk progression in early lesions. - Use systems biology approaches to defi ne the trajectories of different types of
lesions and the corresponding risk of clinically signifi cant malignancies. - Use whole-genome sequencing and somatic gene alterations to develop phylog-
enies to infer the genomic ancestry of lesions and to investigate premalignant
conditions - Analyze tumor heterogeneity using single cell analyses.
Up to $4.5 million will be provided to fund research teams in a network of 8–10
Molecular Characterization Laboratories with the aim of better predicting which
lesions are progressive and require interventions and which are indolent. These
teams will use a range of omics approaches to characterize lesions at the molecular
and cellular levels. They will also establish a biospecimen repository to house
screen-detected lesions and interval cancers. These projects will contribute to
improving personalized cancer therapy.
PREDICT Consortium
PREDICT (Personalized RNA Interference to Enhance the Delivery of Individualized
Cytotoxic and Targeted Therapeutics Consortium) was created in 2009 to coordi-
nate single drug clinical trials with personalized tumor functional genomic analysis
to defi ne patient-specifi c drug sensitivity pathways and biomarkers predictive of
drug response. Partners in the consortium include Horizon Discovery Ltd, Technical
University of Denmark, Cancer Research UK, the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute,
Institut Gustave Rousey, The Royal Marsden NHS Trust, and Bayer Healthcare.
The consortium integrates expertise in renal carcinoma clinical trial recruitment,
whole-genome sequencing technologies, ex vivo cancer cell line cultures, and
personalized RNAi screening technologies. Research is supported by a grant that
Horizon Discovery is sharing with the University of Torino Medical School to
develop models of inherited and somatic genetic variation for research into new
drugs and diagnostics for cancer.
Quebec Clinical Research Organization in Cancer
Quebec Clinical Research Organization in Cancer (Q-CROC) conducts biomarker-
driven clinical research into cancer with a public-private partnership and “Centre of
Excellence PreThera Research.” In April 2014, Merck Canada awarded a C$2 mil-
lion (US$1.8 million) grant to Q-CROC in support of research into personalized
medicine approaches to cancer. Q-CROC ( http://www.qcroc.ca/en ), a provincial
interface for clinical research, aims to facilitate the sharing of information between
industry, government, healthcare establishments, and the research community.
10 Personalized Therapy of Cancer