Study of the genesis and development of cancer: a winning pr

With 280,000 new cases diagnosed each year, cancer is a major public health problem, and consequently the Oncogenetics^* Department directed by Professor Yves-Jean Bignon at the Regional Centre for Combating Cancer, Jean Perrin decided to invest in a project for creating an information system for studying the genesis and development of the disease. The system will enable the Jean Perrin Centre to respond more effectively to the challenges posed by its essential missions – the prevention, screening, diagnosis, theranostics^* and treatment of cancers, along with health education and social action.

This project of major regional interest is part of a high-tech and technologically innovative cancer biology platform with high potential for development and for creation of partnerships between academic teams and regional biotechnological companies. Its transfer activity makes it an interface for basic research and clinical research.

The highly innovative project will enable complex informational links to be made, from the patient to his genes and to the molecular anomalies of the tumour he suffers from, prefiguring medicine of the future based on ‘à la carte’ treatments and personalised care for patients. It relies on a range of technical facilities, including oncogenetic^* consultation (the first in France) assessing a family’s hereditary risk of developing cancer (see the genealogical tree illustrated below),


genotyping (currently medium speed, soon to be high speed), molecular anatomopathology^*the tumour library^*, and analysis of tumours by DNA biochips^* (see illustration below of a complex gene-expression profile).



  The innovative information system set up by the project will enable integration of several thousand items of clinical, biological, tumoural, genetic and molecular data for each patient; only a multi-parametrical approach of this nature will lead to real progress in the understanding of cancer, and to patients in Auvergne (and other regions) benefiting from the latest advances in its treatment.

YJB

Professor Yves-Jean Bignon is Director of the Oncogenetics Department at the Jean Perrin Centre, Scientific Director of the Jean Perrin Centre and Scientific Director ofCLARA (Cancéropôle Lyon Auvergne Rhône-Alpes).

Glossary

• Theranostics : prediction of individual response to treatments
• Anatomopathology : study of abnormal microscopic and macroscopic structural modifications using tissue removed during a surgical operation
• Tumour library : collection of samples taken from cancerous tissue, conserved alongside corresponding pathological and clinical data
• DNA biochips : small plastic, silicon or glass plates upon which are bonded known DNA nucleic sequences characteristic of certain genes, which, in a mix of molecules, match with complementary nucleic sequences enabling detection of the presence of the same genes in cells undergoing analysis.

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