Vastox joins European consortium for new cancer treatments

VASTox, a UK-based biotechnology company, has become a partner in a new European consortium that will undertake research towards developing new treatments for cancer.

The research programme, called Targeting Cancer Stem Cells for Therapy, will be backed by a Euro 2m grant from the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme.

VASTox will work in partnership with five leading research organisations from across Europe to develop treatments that target cancer stem cells (CSCs). In recent years, CSCs have been identified as being an important factor in cancer due to their ability to both initiate and sustain tumour growth. However, there is currently no specific treatment that targets CSCs. The consortium's research will aim to identify the CSCs that cause tumour growth, and thereby generate new drug targets with the ultimate objective of developing new cancer therapies.

The consortium will be coordinated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Unit in Italy and includes the University of Lund in Sweden, Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council, Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen. Initial research will be focused on two types of cancer: leukaemia and breast cancer. The grant is spread over three years and will be split between the consortium members.

VASTox's participation in this research programme will complement its existing discovery programmes in the areas of cancer and the potential use of stem cells as regenerative medicines. VASTox's capabilities in these areas will be enhanced by being involved in this framework programme and will also place the Company at the forefront of key research into this new and important area of cancer research.

Steve Lee, ceo of VASTox commented: 'For VASTox to be part of this consortium represents an exciting opportunity for the company to play a key role in the early stages of discovery and development of novel cancer medicines. The identification and targeting of cancer stem cells allows for the exciting possibility of being able to eradicate cancer from a patient, an outcome which many current therapies do not provide.'