New front in cancer battle (From Oxford Mail)

New front in cancer battle

10:40am Monday 22nd January 2007 in News By Maggie Hartford

Oxford University and one of its spin-out companies have joined a pioneering European cancer research consortium.

The research programme, called Targeting Cancer Stem Cells for Therapy, will be backed by a £1.3m grant from the European Commission.

There are currently no treatments targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs), which initiate and sustain tumour growth.

Vastox, of Milton Park, near Abingdon, which uses zebra fish and fruit flies in the search for life-saving drugs, will join Oxford University, University of Lund in Sweden, Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council and the University of Copenhagen.

They aim to identify the CSCs that cause tumour growth, with the ultimate aim of developing new cancer therapies.

Chief executive Steve Lee said: "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.”

Vastox chief executive Steve Lee

"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."

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 six members.

The consortium will be coordinated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Unit in Italy.

In September, Vastox won a £370,000 share in a £910,000 UK programme to screen small molecules in zebrafish and fruitflies to identify compounds that affect stem cells.

The company will own the patents in any drugs developed for a wide range of conditions such as Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer.

Academics involved include Profs Roger Patient and Tariq Enver at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, who are scientific advisors to Vastox.

In December, Vastox paid £240,000 for Welsh chemistry company MNL Pharma, after it went into administration. The deal included a potential cancer drug which stimulates the immune system without activating toxic inflammatory responses.