Challenge Research Fund Report

Child Cancer Foundation Annual Report 2003

In July 2002, Dr Michael Sullivan and Professor Anthony Reeve were granted the sum of $93,000 from the Foundation’s Challenge Research Fund to cover the first phase costs of a research project entitled “Intelligent Data Tools and Microarray Gene Expression Analysis for Clinical Decision Making in Neuroblastoma.” Dr Sullivan’s progress report on the project is as follows.

We are very grateful to the Child Cancer Foundation for awarding our research group the Child Cancer Foundation’s Challenge Research Grant.

The Children’s Cancer Research group was established in 2002 in the Christchurch School of Medicine to investigate the biology and genetics and cancer in children. We have now equipped a dedicated research laboratory within the School of Medicine, which is in close proximity to the Children’s Haematology Oncology Centre (CHOC) within Christchurch Hospital. We have also recently established (with generous funding from the Child Cancer Foundation) a Paediatric Tissue Bank for the collection and preservation of tissues and tumours for future research.

During this past year we have appointed 2 full time Scientists (Dr Glen Reid and Dr Dejan Arsic) and will have a PhD student join us in the New Year.

Our various research projects use the recently developed ‘gene chip’ technology to analyse the patterns of gene expression within childhood tumours. The complex and unpredictable behaviour of a cancer cell is determined by type and nature of genes that are active within the cell. Within any given cancer many hundreds or thousands of genes may be active and these will determine if the cancer will respond to treatment or not.

Our laboratory is now using microarray gene expression technology ‘gene chips’, which is able to analyse the activity of thousands of genes from a cancer in a single experiment.

Our group are currently working on four projects, two of which have funding from the Foundation. Progress reports on the projects follows:

1. Prognostic classification of neuroblastoma by microarray gene expression analysis and fuzzy neural networks

Dr Glen Reid

Funded by the Child Cancer Foundation Challenge Research Fund this project is analysing neuroblastomas using microarray gene expression methods. Neuroblastoma is a very complex cancer of childhood arising in developing neural tissue. Some of these tumours can be treated with standard therapies with an excellent cure rate, whereas others are highly malignant and prove resistant to even the most intense treatments. We anticipate identifying patterns of gene expression (gene signatures) within these tumours that will influence how we treat children with these cancers.

2. Developmental pathways in the pathogenesis of Hepatoblastoma

Dr Dejan Arsic - (not funded by the Foundation)

We are investigating the biology of a childhood liver cancer, Hepatoblastoma, to show how this cancer may have developed. We anticipate this will identify new treatment options for children.

3. World wide Clinical trial and Biologic Study of Pancreatoblastoma

Dr Michael Sullivan, Study Chair (Clinical and Biologic) under the auspices of the International Paediatric Oncology Society, SIOPEL study Group, to open 2004 Pancreatoblastoma is a very rare but treatable cancer of children. We have developed the first International Clinical Trial for this tumour which will open as a world wide treatment protocol in 2004.

4. Paediatric Tissue Banking

Dr Michael Sullivan and Dr Robin Corbett

We have established a dedicated Paediatric Tissue bank to store tumours for future research. We have National Ethics approval to collect and store tumours (with parents informed consent) for future research projects. A special low temperature freezer (80C) has now been installed with generous funding from the Marlborough Branch of the Central Division and from the Canterbury/West Coast Division of the Foundation.

We are delighted to have the generous support from the Child Cancer Foundation for our projects. We look forward to further much needed funding support and exciting year in 2004.

Dr Michael Sullivan FRACP PhD
Senior Lecturer Paediatric Oncology
Consultant Paediatric Oncologist