Eight countries in search of the secret of eight types of cancer

Last weekend, while welcoming the G-20 in Washington, the International Consortium of the Cancer Genome (ICGC, in its acronym in Spanish) took a momentous decision for the future of research. Eleven institutions from eight countries carried out eight research projects on eight different types of cancer. Spain, which is involved through the Ministry of Science and Innovation, will be responsible for sequencing the genome of leukemia, chronic lymphocytic type, the most common among adults in Western countries and that, generally, is not curable with treatment strategies available. Minister for Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, stressed yesterday told ABC the significance of the initiative, stressing that "would amount to 25,000 human genome projects of the kind in terms of total volume of DNA to analyze." The Carlos III Health Institute will be responsible for implementing the plan with the Spanish to try to have sequenced in five years, the genetic map of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, whose incidence is 15 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The investigator Elias Campo, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, will be responsible for coordinating this project, which will contribute 10 million euros. The other seven countries that initially will work on this project are Canada (with the cancer research of the pancreas), China (stomach cancer), France (subtypes of breast and liver), India (mouth), Japan (subtype of the liver); UK (various subtypes of breast cancer) and Australia (which will announce shortly the type of cancer in which focus their investigation). Also participating in the United States through the project "The Cancer Genome Atlas', intended to explore the genetic basis of three other types of brain cancer, lung and uterus, and the European Union, with the Seventh Framework Program in the field of genomics of cancer