Steve O’Rahilly and Tony Coll are delighted to be co-investigators on one of two new research projects involving Cambridge scientists as part of Cancer Grand Challenges – a major initiative co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US – which aims to encourage the world’s leading cancer researchers to take on some of the toughest challenges in cancer research.

Sharing nearly £2.5M funding, Professor O’Rahilly and Dr Coll together with Dr Giulia Biffi from the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute, will be joining the CANCAN (CANcer Cachexia Action Network) team, which is led by three institutions across the US, and will explore the underpinning mechanisms behind cancer cachexia – a debilitating wasting condition many people experience in the later stages of the disease.

Cachexia syndrome is characterised by poor appetite and extensive weight loss from both skeletal muscle and fatty tissue and is still not fully understood.

It is hoped further research can help develop new treatments to improve quality of life for cancer patients and set the standard for cachexia management around the world.

For many decades we have studied how a range of hormones act on the brain to regulate appetite and body weight. Many of the insights that we have gained through our previous research in obesity are likely to be highly relevant to cancer cachexia, a condition where hormonal and metabolic changes secondary to cancer impact on the brain to reduce, rather than increase appetite.

We have recently discovered a pathway in the brain which is key to controlling whether we put food calories in excess of our basic needs into fat or into muscle.  This pathway is likely to be highly relevant to patients with cancer cachexia who are particularly affected by a loss of muscle. We are delighted to be part of this consortium, aiming to transform the understanding of cancer cachexia and deliver improved outcomes and better quality of life for patients.

Steve O’Rahilly

 

 

Giulia Biffi co-leads the CRUK Cambridge Centre Pancreatic Cancer programme and her research group investigates the biology of the tumour microenvironment in pancreatic cancer with the aim of developing new treatments and diagnostics.

Cachexia is predominant in pancreatic cancer patients; it increases patient mortality and can prevent patients accessing treatment as they are too weak. If we can identify ways to treat cachexia more people could be treated for their cancer. This is a fantastic opportunity to interact with a highly multi-disciplinary team to bring our different scientific and clinical strategies towards a single common goal.

Giulia Biffi

 

Dr Claire Connell, a Clinical Lecturer in Medical Oncology at the University of Cambridge and member of the Pancreatic Cancer Programme will work closely with the CANCAN team. Dr Connell and Dr Coll have recently opened a clinical study at Addenbrooke’s hospital which aims to understand the mechanisms underlying weight loss in cancer patients by investigating changes to metabolism and the immune system. They hope the findings from the Metabolic and Immunological Phenotyping in Patients with Cancer (MIPPaC) study will guide future research and help to design treatments that can alleviate or prevent weight loss and improve outcomes for cancer patients.

 

Information about the other Cancer Grand Challenges project in Cambridge.

The eDyNAmiC (extrachromosomal DNA in Cancer) team will be led by researchers at Stanford University working with Professor Serena Nik Zainal from the University of Cambridge Early Cancer Institute and Department of Medical Genetics, and receives just under £1.5M to help tackle tumour evolution, driven by circular pieces of tumour DNA which exist outside the tumour and pose a major problem by enabling tumours to resist treatment.

More details from Cancer Research UK 

 

Information about the Cancer Grand Challenges Initiative.
Funding for the Cambridge-based projects is part of an overall £80 million awarded this week to four elite global teams who will deepen our understanding of cancer through international collaboration leading to new advances for people with cancer.

The other teams are NextTGen, led by US and UK researchers including academics at Cardiff University, which aims to develop effective and kinder treatments for childhood solid cancers, including sarcomas and brain tumours by bringing engineered T cell therapies to the routine treatment of these children within a decade and PROMINENT, which aims to create a roadmap of tumour development.

The Cancer Grand Challenges is a ground-breaking £425m cancer research initiative co-founded in 2020 by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US. It comprises more than 700 investigators from 10 countries and 68 institutions taking on 11 of the toughest challenges in cancer research. As well as the four challenges announced today, teams are looking new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer by taking on long-standing challenges in cancer research, such as the role of the microbiome in the development of bowel cancer.

More details on the announcement from Cancer Grand Challenges 

Photo credit: Chris Radburn