For thirty years, there has been little to no progress in treatments for many pediatric tumours. The chemotherapy and radiation treatments are essentially the same as they were in the 1970s. These treatments necessarily attack healthy tissue along with the tumours themselves. This can and does have tremendous long term consequences for otherwise healthy growing children.
Although overall survival for children with cancer has improved substantially over the last three decades, significant challenges remain. Considerable numbers of childhood cancers are incurable, particularly those where tumours have recurred or metastasized. The most important challenge at this time is to understand why specific types of tumours spread or come back and why some of the most aggressive tumours are so resistant to therapy. Understanding these basic concepts will lead to improvements in cancer survival, improvements in the quality of life of children surviving their cancer, and will ultimately alleviate the burden on their families.
The Team Finn Foundation is committed to changing this.
The Pediatric Genomic Project
Headed by Dr. Poul Sorensen, and using some of the most powerful gene sequencing technologies ever developed, the goal of the pediatric genomic project at the BC Cancer Agency and supported by the BC Cancer Foundation and Team Finn is to probe the genomes (DNA) of some of the most challenging childhood cancers known.
Analysis of pediatric cancers has a unique place in the realm of cancer genomics. Pediatric cancer genomes are typically much less complex than those of adult malignancies, simplifying their analysis and providing a much more efficient strategy for identifying new genetic drivers of cancer.
The newly discovered genetic information about these pediatric cancers will lead to the development of new therapies aimed at destroying the devastating cancer cells. Powerful and leading edge “next generation sequencing” (NGS) technology will be used to rapidly scan the DNA of the entire human genome that is contained in tumour cells. Researchers will examine and directly compare the genetic signature of primary tumour cells and tumour cells that have spread (metastasized) or relapsed in childhood cancers to uncover new genes that may be targets for new drug therapies. This will also provide unique insights into the heterogeneity (variation) that may exist in tumours, potentially identifying those cells with a propensity for metastatic spread. This will allow the characterization of molecular drivers of metastasis, which is the roadblock that needs to be bypassed to develop new metastasis targeting therapeutics.
This project will generate an unprecedented view of the tumour genomes in these diseases. The knowledge gained will help determine how to better treat childhood cancers and, how to prevent tumours from metastasizing to other parts of the body.
Canadian Pediatric Cancer Genome Consortium
This consortium, founded in February 2011, is led by Dr. Poul Sorensen, Johal Chair of Childhood Cancer Research at the BC Cancer Agency. It is a collaborative, national consortium of clinicians and scientists created to take advantage of the recent breakthroughs in technologies and harness the power of next generation sequencing. Members of the consortium are representatives from each of the 17 Canadian Pediatric Cancer Centres (C17) and are recognised world leaders in their specialities with an established track record in the investigation and/or the treatment of pediatric cancer.
The purpose of the consortium is:
i) to identify and promote projects where use of NGS and other technologies can advance knowledge, care and outcome in pediatric cancers across Canada;
ii) facilitate interactions between project leaders, sequencing platforms and biostatisticians to utilise the massive potential of NGS and elucidate the role in cancer of sequence variants in tumour and normal genomes;
iii) facilitate the translation of research to the bedside and knowledge transfer to the public and scientists in the field.
Personalized Pediatric Medicine Project
The vision of the BC Cancer Agency is that patients will have their genomic profiles determined upon diagnosis and appropriate patient-specific treatments will be planned based on the genetic alterations found in the tumours. Because of the scale of this change and the many aspects of the cancer care system it will affect, the Pediatric Personalized Medicine Project will be an important first step in making this goal a reality. It will provide the evidence for moving personalized medicine into the clinic, setting the stage for changes in care.
Once initiated, the personalized pediatric medicine projects will involve the sequencing of tumours of pediatric and young adult patients in BC with rare and high-risk cancers. Each profile generated will be compared to all known drugs – for cancer or otherwise – to see if there are matches between the found mutation and the drugs’ targets. If so, a patient-specific treatment plan may be designed to help these young people who are often subject to the “anything and everything” approach.
The Team Finn Foundation
In partnership, with the B.C. Cancer Foundation, the Team Finn Foundation has committed to help the B.C. Cancer Foundation and Dr. Poul Sorensen implement and sustain the above projects.
We believe that genomic sequencing offer hope. The hope of helping us understand how different cancers work. Why they work. And then how to treat them. And then how to stop them.
This is the type of research that Team Finn has been and will continue to support. Not just because the research offers hope, but also because the knowledge gains from pediatric tumour groups are not limited to children and will translate into changes in the adult world.
Ultimately, our long term goal is to Change the Story. Change stories for other Finns. Change stories for our moms, our dads, our brothers, our sisters, our sons and our daughters. Change stories for our friends and co-workers. Change stories for ourselves. Change it now. Change it tomorrow.
Genomics is just the start of changing the story. We need the knowledge. But knowledge is not enough. The genomic knowledge just leads to the next step. We don’t know exactly what that next step is yet. But when we find out, we will be ready.
