EU project studies innovative ways of diagnosing and treating cancer

A project to study new and innovative ways of diagnosing and treating cancer is underway thanks to a grant of €10.4m from the 'Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health' thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

CANCERDEGRADOME brings together the expertise of 41 scientists from 13 countries who, looking mainly at four of the most prolific types of cancer (breast, prostate, colorectal and skin), will focus on the complement of genes that encode enzymes that are known as proteases.

'Proteases are a diverse and important group of enzymes whose job is to cut or degrade other proteins,' said project co-ordinator Dylan Edwards, from the University of East Anglia. 'Proteases function at different stages of tumour development and progres-sion. In this project we plan to investigate the biology of proteases and then design specific inhibitors to block them.'

During the four-year project the CANCERDEGRADOME partners will use their knowledge of the degradome to create new drugs and develop novel specific interventions based on detailed knowledge of the roles of target proteases in cancer. The project will also aim to improve tumour imaging, so that cancers can be localised, characterised and treated at the earliest possible stages of the disease.