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Desert tree extract may protect against skin cancer
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Australian researchers have launched a national prostate tumour tissue bank – marking the first time cancer tissue and accompanying clinical and epidemiological data will be collected and coordinated on a national basis. The only comparable collection in Australia is a smaller one, devoted to research on familial breast cancer. The bank, an initiative of the Australian Prostate Cancer Collaboration (APCC) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, will operate as a ‘virtual’ bank, with a number of storage sites around Australia. It will be coordinated by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the database will be accessible to researchers via a website. APCC working group chair, Associate Professor Judith Clements, explains that this will be the first time that a set of guidelines will standardise the way all Australian clinicians collect prostate tumour tissue and clinical and epidemiological data, providing a much larger database for researchers. “At the moment, when we do small
Courtesy of Queensland Univesity of Technology
National prostate tumour bank launched in Australia
Prostate tumour bank national coordinator Helen Wainwright (left) with Judith Clements (right)
studies, we can’t pool the data because the information and the tissue have been collected in different ways”, she says. Professor Clements, Head of Cancer and Molecular Genetics Program at the QUT School of Life
Sciences, believes that the national tumour bank is a world first. In the USA and Europe, researchers have relied on institution-based tumour banks. While these tissue collections are quite large, Professor Clements believes that the data reflect the type of prostate cancer management in place at that institution. Each of the Australian bank’s storage sites is expected to collect 100–150 tumours that had been removed by surgery each year. Professor Clements’ research team is one of two groups world-wide that has been instrumental in identifying an additional 12 kallikrein (KLK) genes in the past 2 years – most of which are associated with prostate cancer. Until these came to light, it was thought that there were only three genes in the family, including the KLK3 gene, for which the prostate-specific antigen test is a marker. Professor Clements said QUT’s research was now focusing on the KLK4 gene, which is found in bone metastases of men with prostate cancer. Megan Howe
Desert tree extract may protect against skin cancer Two studies by US scientists suggest that chemicals called avicins, obtained from an Australian desert tree, Acacia victoriae, can prevent skin cancer in mice and block the production of cancer-promoting proteins in human leukaemia cells. Scientists from the MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) concluded that “avicins may prove important for reducing both oxidative and nitrosative cellular stress, thereby suppressing the development of malignancies and related diseases” (PNAS 2001; 98: 10986–88, 11551–62). The team, led by Jordan Gutterman, Professor of Medicine, at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, conducted research into the protective effects of avicins against skin cancer in mice. The skin of half the mice was treated with avicins, and then all the mice
656
were exposed to a carcinogenic chemical. Researchers found that avicin-treated mice were 70% less likely to develop premalignant lesions than untreated mice and that avicin-treated mice that did develop abnormalities had 90% fewer than the untreated mice. In a second study, the researchers examined the effects of avicins on nuclear transcription factor kappa-B (NFB), a protein that can prevent apoptosis. The team found that avicins prevented the triggering of the cell protein, tumour necrosis factor, which normally sets off the production of NFB in human leukaemia cells. Gutterman explains how he was prompted to conduct the studies following “previous work using interferon and then later research on desert plants, where I realised the importance of nutrition and UV light in treating
cancer”. He believes that there will be a sharp increase in the number of scientists turning to nature as a source of new drugs. “The genome and proteome projects have revealed the commonality between networks of cells. Nature has already developed chemicals over hundreds of millions of years for self defence”, he points out. “For example, plants have developed mechanisms and chemical barriers to perturb antagonists such as bacteria. Nature has already done a lot of the work for us. Scientists are beginning to understand this more and more”, he adds. Gutterman’s team will be doing more work on the acacia tree, and hope to develop the first topically applied acacia extract, for protection against skin damage, within 2 years. Georgina Kenyon
THE LANCET Oncology Vol 2 November 2001
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
Australian researchers have launched a national prostate tumour tissue bank – marking the first time cancer tissue and accompanying clinical and epidemiological data will be collected and coordinated on a national basis. The only comparable collection in Australia is a smaller one, devoted to research on familial breast cancer. The bank, an initiative of the Australian Prostate Cancer Collaboration (APCC) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, will operate as a ‘virtual’ bank, with a number of storage sites around Australia. It will be coordinated by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the database will be accessible to researchers via a website. APCC working group chair, Associate Professor Judith Clements, explains that this will be the first time that a set of guidelines will standardise the way all Australian clinicians collect prostate tumour tissue and clinical and epidemiological data, providing a much larger database for researchers. “At the moment, when we do small
Courtesy of Queensland Univesity of Technology
National prostate tumour bank launched in Australia
Prostate tumour bank national coordinator Helen Wainwright (left) with Judith Clements (right)
studies, we can’t pool the data because the information and the tissue have been collected in different ways”, she says. Professor Clements, Head of Cancer and Molecular Genetics Program at the QUT School of Life
Sciences, believes that the national tumour bank is a world first. In the USA and Europe, researchers have relied on institution-based tumour banks. While these tissue collections are quite large, Professor Clements believes that the data reflect the type of prostate cancer management in place at that institution. Each of the Australian bank’s storage sites is expected to collect 100–150 tumours that had been removed by surgery each year. Professor Clements’ research team is one of two groups world-wide that has been instrumental in identifying an additional 12 kallikrein (KLK) genes in the past 2 years – most of which are associated with prostate cancer. Until these came to light, it was thought that there were only three genes in the family, including the KLK3 gene, for which the prostate-specific antigen test is a marker. Professor Clements said QUT’s research was now focusing on the KLK4 gene, which is found in bone metastases of men with prostate cancer. Megan Howe
Desert tree extract may protect against skin cancer Two studies by US scientists suggest that chemicals called avicins, obtained from an Australian desert tree, Acacia victoriae, can prevent skin cancer in mice and block the production of cancer-promoting proteins in human leukaemia cells. Scientists from the MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) concluded that “avicins may prove important for reducing both oxidative and nitrosative cellular stress, thereby suppressing the development of malignancies and related diseases” (PNAS 2001; 98: 10986–88, 11551–62). The team, led by Jordan Gutterman, Professor of Medicine, at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, conducted research into the protective effects of avicins against skin cancer in mice. The skin of half the mice was treated with avicins, and then all the mice
656
were exposed to a carcinogenic chemical. Researchers found that avicin-treated mice were 70% less likely to develop premalignant lesions than untreated mice and that avicin-treated mice that did develop abnormalities had 90% fewer than the untreated mice. In a second study, the researchers examined the effects of avicins on nuclear transcription factor kappa-B (NFB), a protein that can prevent apoptosis. The team found that avicins prevented the triggering of the cell protein, tumour necrosis factor, which normally sets off the production of NFB in human leukaemia cells. Gutterman explains how he was prompted to conduct the studies following “previous work using interferon and then later research on desert plants, where I realised the importance of nutrition and UV light in treating
cancer”. He believes that there will be a sharp increase in the number of scientists turning to nature as a source of new drugs. “The genome and proteome projects have revealed the commonality between networks of cells. Nature has already developed chemicals over hundreds of millions of years for self defence”, he points out. “For example, plants have developed mechanisms and chemical barriers to perturb antagonists such as bacteria. Nature has already done a lot of the work for us. Scientists are beginning to understand this more and more”, he adds. Gutterman’s team will be doing more work on the acacia tree, and hope to develop the first topically applied acacia extract, for protection against skin damage, within 2 years. Georgina Kenyon
THE LANCET Oncology Vol 2 November 2001
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.