WIN Symposium 2012

Dr Oliver Bogler talks to ecancer at the 2012 WIN Symposium in Paris about the WIN Consortium and clinical trials in biomarker research. The WIN Consortium was founded in a joint effort between Dr John Mendelsohn of MD Anderson Cancer Center and Prof Alexander Eggermont of Institute Gustave Roussy and focuses on building international collaborations for further research into translational and personalised medicine. Dr Bogler also discuses early phase clinical trials on biomarker research, with focus on the WINTHER trial, or WIN therapeutics. The trial aims to analyse the molecular characteristics of tumours and identify patient profiles; ultimately with a goal of using a variety of approaches to improve the lives of 200 patients, 50 from each participating centre. Also, noted is the Universal Biomarker project, a large-scale characterisation of tumours and attracting more centres to the WIN Consortium. Filming Supported by Amgen

Dr James Doroshow talks to ecancer at the 2012 WIN Symposium, Paris, about improving the assessment of developing targeted therapies to determine their future efficacy and the continuing sub division of cancer types. Using biopsies and imaging techniques, preliminary evidence in only a few dozen patients can help researchers to understand the course of a drug's development. Dr Doroshow also discusses the future of precision medicine and personalised medicine, in so far as the development of drugs and clinical trials is more about catering to the patient rather than the drug's future. Dr Doroshow predicts all cancers becoming ‘rare’ types as each tumour and mutation is identified in each patient. This intense classification of disease type highlights the importance of creating national and global databases. Filming Supported by Amgen

Dr Douglas Feil talks to ecancer at the 2012 WIN Symposium, Paris, about the start of the National Breast Cancer Foundation and it's ‘Beyond the Shock’ network. The National Breast Cancer Foundation, founded by a breast cancer survivor in the 1980’s, provides mammograms and educational material on all aspects of breast cancer. With WIN, the foundation aims to reach out globally with their resources and programmes. ‘Beyond the Shock’, an online community for women with breast cancer, is an educational portal where women can find out about the specifics of breast cancer from doctors and researchers. ‘Beyond the Shock’ creates a social network where patients can talk openly to one another about the disease and treatment options. Filming Supported by Amgen

Dr Leroy Hood talks to ecancer at the 2012 WIN Symposium, Paris, about systems medicine, a new approach to understanding the complexities of cancer. By analysing biological circuits at the proteomic and genomic level, observations can be made on when cancer cells form. The ultimate goal of this method is to identify targets efficiently and determine where and why mutations occur. While many labs do not have access to the costly technologies to implement systems medicine, Dr Hood states that this method is what is needed to solve the current problems with cancer. Filming supported by Amgen

Dr Michael Pellini talks to ecancer at the 2012 WIN Symposium, Paris, about the investigation of next generation sequencing in the WINTHER project. Dr Pellini and his company are researching targeted therapies and new testing methods, but he notes that these methods are part of a global effort to work through the challenges cancer presents. Dr Pellini sees the WIN Consortium as a group of thought leaders attacking problems from a medical and global perspective. Foundation Medicine’s role in the WINTHER project, short for WIN Therapeutics, is comprehensively profiling each patient’s tumour. Previously, molecular testing occurred with only a few biomarkers analysed. Next generation sequencing gives a much larger picture, but is very complex and expensive. Another aim of the study is to make this method practical and accessible in all clinical settings. Filming supported by Amgen

Dr Gary Palmer talks to ecancer at the 2012 WIN Symposium, Paris, about the FP7 project, WINTHER, which investigates next generation sequencing. The WINTer project uses next generation sequencing by using paraffin tissue; however, the information created must be able to translate for use by a clinical oncologist in a practical setting. Foundation Medicine’s involvement in the WINTHER trial is in the technology arm of the study, Arm A specifically. This involves identifying abnormalities in a patient’s tumour to better identify the best course of treatment. This can be used with either currently available drugs or drugs in clinical trials. Filming Supported by Amgen

Dr John Quackenbush talks to ecancertv about a new approach for cancer treatment development. By assessing the differences in gene expression in patients with specific tumour types, it is possible to identify pathways which show very low genetic variance between patients. Dr Quackenbush explains how this low variance can be used as an indicator to identify pathways that are integral for cancer development and consequently which can be seen as a good target for treatments. Initial analysis of a large dataset compiled by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has confirmed that a large number of known drug targets fit into this pattern. Filming Supported by Amgen

Dr Bin Teh talks about the problem of high cancer incidence in Asia and the efforts that are being made to reduce this. It is thought that Asia’s high cancer rates are linked to diet and the level of viral and parasitic infections among Asian populations. Dr Teh explains how the screening programmes introduced to more developed Asian countries such as Japan and Korea have helped reduce cancer mortality, but warns that such preventative measures are not possible in poorer or less politically stable countries. In the absence of screening programmes, education is an effective way to reduce cancer incidence. For example, cholangiocarcinoma bile duct cancer is a disease related to liver fluke parasitic infections and can be prevented by cooking fish before consumption. However, such behavioural changes take time to be accepted and other options, such as the identification of effective drugs which are out of patent, must be sought. Filming supported by Amgen

Prof Paul Workman discusses how the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) is working to speed up the development of new cancer drug targets. Although cancer genome sequencing is uncovering many potential new treatment targets, these are not always pursued by major pharmaceutical companies due to the high risk associated with early stage research. Prof Workman explains how ICR, as a non-profit academic group, has been able to successfully take high risk potential targets and develop them to the stage where they can be taken up by pharmaceutical companies. Filming supported by Amgen

Dr Patrick Johnson talks to ecancertv about Dassault Systems’ work building a collaborative online environment to aid therapeutic development. It is hoped that this will facilitate a greater level of collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, research labs and computer companies and will help develop better models of disease progression. It is expected that the construction this large system to model multiple cancers will allow the identification of similarities in chemical pathways and aid the drug development. Dr Johnson concludes by discussing the importance of multi-disciplinary approach which encourages different disciplines to work together to develop the next generation of therapies. Filming Supported by Amgen

Prof Razelle Kurzrock explains how the WINTHER trial is using molecular data to determine which drugs specific patients should receive. This large scale study will be carried out across four continents and include patients with all types of tumour. The WINTHER trial will use both genetic sequencing in order to identify DNA mutations or abnormalities and RNA analysis to identify the appropriate treatment for patients who do not have recognised genetic abnormalities. Filming supported by Amgen

Dr Nick Botwood talks to ecancer.tv about results demonstrating the efficacy of vandetanib in the treatment of medullary thyroid carcinoma. Vandetanib was originally developed for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; however, clinical trials did not demonstrate sufficient benefit for it to be approved. However, further trials established that this agent is active against the RET oncogene and subsequently AstraZeneca started trials assessing the use vandetanib in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma. A Phase III trial was comparing vandetanib with no therapy and vandetanib with standard therapy showed significant improvement in drug response rate and significant increases in patient progression free survival. As a result, vandetanib has been approved for use in USA, Canada and Europe for patients with advanced aggressive or progressive medullary thyroid carcinoma, or patients with symptoms from their disease. Dr Botwood concludes by discussing the movement towards genetically targeted cancer therapies and talks about the need for further collaborations between academia and pharmaceutical companies. Filming Supported by Amgen