No Stomach for Cancer | Be Strong Hearted

Gastric cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in the world.

It is estimated that 1-3% of cases of gastric cancer are caused by Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer.² Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) is an inherited cancer syndrome that leads to an increased risk for both diffuse gastric cancer and lobular breast cancer in women. Patients who inherit the genetic mutation for HDGC are at high risk for developing gastric cancer at a young age.³ Read the rest of this entry »

A  prestigious James Cook Fellowship has been awarded to researcher Parry Guilford, University of Otazo, New Zealand, to pursue innovative research aimed at reversing or preventing the very early stages of stomach cancer.

Read Parry Guilford’s personal post detailing his exciting research plan for HDGC / CDH1 gene research.  His two year fellowship will begin in March, 2010.

The University of Otago announces Parry Guilford’s exciting award for  stomach cancer research.

More information about The Royal Society of New Zealand James Cook Research Fellowships.

Parry Guilford; Cancer Genetics Laboratory, University of Otago

The James Cook Fellowship provides funding for two years of concentrated research, free of teaching and administrative commitments.  My planned research is built broadly around establishing methods to assess individual risk of developing gastric cancer.  As we all know, CDH1 mutation carriers have a lifetime risk of around 70-80% of developing diffuse gastric cancer, but we have little understanding of an individual’s actual risk at any particular point in time. A better understanding of this would help individual carriers decide what the best time for surgical intervention is.  Read the rest of this entry »

CDH1 Mutations and Inheritance

By Amy Stettner, MS, CGC
Genetic Counselor
Madison, WI

Our bodies are made up of trillions of tiny cells. We have skin cells, muscle cells, bone cells, stomach cells, etc. Each cell contains a copy of our genetic code. This genetic code is made up of DNA and is packaged into structures called chromosomes. Read the rest of this entry »

By Johanna Chelcun, MHS, PA-C

As we now know, hereditary diffuse gastric cancer is a rare inherited syndrome that is caused by a genetic mutation in the CDH1 gene. This gene has the possibility of being passed from generation to generation, and the effects of the inheritance can be devastating. Looking beyond HDGC, we notice that the new wave of medicine is focused on genetic mapping, counseling, and testing - searching for patterns of heart disease, autism, dementia, and all types of cancer, to name a few.

Often times, primary care physicians simply don’t have the time to ascertain and document a thorough family history during a brief appointment. They are often allotted only 15-minute intervals to discuss your own medical history, review your medication list, talk about any current issues or concerns, perform a physical exam, develop a management plan, prescribe any new medications, and update your medical record (whew!). The time spent on family history is minimal, and sometimes even missed altogether.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Johanna Chelcun, PA-C

Did you know…

…that Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer (HDGC) is an inherited cancer syndrome that leads to an increased risk for diffuse gastric cancer (67-83% risk by age 80) and lobular breast cancer (20-40% risk for women by age 80.)

…that the American Cancer Society estimated that one million people worldwide would be diagnosed with stomach cancer in the year 2007, and that 800,000 would die from the disease? Read the rest of this entry »

Current Research Projects of the Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer Research Team at the British Columbia Cancer Agency.

David Huntsman, Pardeep Kaurah
 

Over the last 10 years, we have learnt a lot about hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC). However, there are still many critical knowledge deficits which need to be addressed to improve the cancer control of families with known CDH1 mutations and to inform the care of families with strong histories of gastric cancer of whom known mutations have been identified.

Our research team is both collaborating with other members of the International Gastric Cancer Linkage Consortium (IGCLC) to develop a more accurate understanding of the cancer risks associated with carrying CDH1 mutations, and is performing research locally that should help our global research community move forward.

Studies we are actively engaged in include: Read the rest of this entry »

Be sure to visit HDGC…Now What?

You, or someone close to you has been diagnosed with HDGC.  Now what?  The search is on, for information, for support, for encouragement.

  
We are committed to developing this network, a valuable source of credible and useful information.  Join our community of support for all of those touched by HDGC or other types of stomach cancer.  Your participation can be as little or as much as you desire.  You decide. Read the rest of this entry »

Group name/Designation:

Cancer Genetics

Group Leader:

Raquel Seruca

Principal Investigators related to gastric cancer research:
Carla Oliveira ( HDGC molecular genetics),
Fátima Carneiro ( Molecular Pathology),
Gianpaolo Suriano and Jose Carlos Machado ( Gastric cancer related signalling pathways)
Céu Figueiredo (Helicobacter pylori related research)

Principal Investigators related to breast cancer research:
Joana Paredes (Signalling pathways related to breast cancer invasion), 
Fernando Schmitt ( Molecular pathology),

Location of the Group (Host- Institution):

 IPATIMUP, Porto, Portugal

General Objectives of the Group

The research of our group focuses on the genetics of three common types of epithelial cancer: gastric, breast, and colorectal carcinoma. We focus at identifying 1) germline genetic alterations (high and low penetrance genes) associated with increased risk of these tumours; 2) pathological features and somatic molecular markers occurring in the setting of hereditary and sporadic carcinomas; 3) signalling pathways mediated by genetic and gene-environmental factors in tumour development in order to find molecular targets for therapeutic intervention. Read the rest of this entry »

Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer: Research update May 2009

Parry Guilford, Bostjan Humar, Helen More and Soroush Nasri; Cancer Genetics Laboratory, University of Otago

The lab has two HDGC research projects in progress at the moment. The first which is being carried out by Helen More in collaboration with our colleagues in Munich, Vancouver and New York, and funded by the New Zealand Health Research Council, aims to get a better understanding of the clinical importance of some fairly common variants in the CDH1 gene. Read the rest of this entry »

I think the broader implications of HDGC research are that the small, very early cancers found in the stomachs of HDGC families are rarely seen in the general population (because they are too small to be seen by endoscopy and are asymptomatic).  By analysing them we get a unique opportunity to observe the earliest stages of gastric cancer development (which affects >800,000 new people/yr worldwide).   

This provides a better understanding of the mechanisms by which the environment triggers cancer development and an opportunity to test and develop new agents for the prevention of many cancer types.

Regards, Parry

Assoc. Prof. Parry Guilford is a Principal Investigator in the Cancer Genetics Laboratory, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Research Director of Pacific Edge Biotechnology Ltd. He completed his MSc at Otago in 1983, and his PhD at Cambridge University in 1989.  His research interests include the genetics of inherited cancers, in particular gastric cancer, and the application of gene expression analysis to the diagnosis and management of cancer.

Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer: Research update October 2008

Parry Guilford, Bostjan Humar and Helen More; Cancer Genetics Laboratory, University of Otago

The recent focus of the group has been to understand the molecular events that are occurring as HDGC stomach cancers develop and progress. By understanding these events we will be better placed to identify (i) the reasons and triggers that underlie the variable age of onset in HDGC families (ii) which drugs may be effective in treatment and (iii) possible drugs which can be used to prevent cancer development (chemoprevention).

Our research has demonstrated that specific epigenetic changes to the DNA are critical for the initiation of HDGC. Epigenetic changes consist of modifications to the chromosome micro-structure that prevent genes being normally active. Importantly, these changes differ from mutations in that they are potentially reversible.  We have shown that the 2^nd copy of the E-cadherin gene (CDH1) is knocked out in early HDGC cancers by an epigenetic change called DNA methylation.  The combination of the inherited mutation of one copy of the gene and the later methylation (in the stomach) of the second copy results in affected stomach cells having no E-cadherin. We believe this deficit is sufficient to trigger the start of the cancers.  We don’t yet know what is causing the methylation; it may be something preventable (eg perhaps triggered by inflammation) or it may simply be a necessary consequence of normal gastric function.  Regardless, the clear role of epigenetic changes in cancer initiation suggests that drugs which can reverse or prevent the changes may be useful in the chemoprevention of gastric cancer.

As a result, a major focus of our future HDGC research will be to identify and test drugs which can inhibit or reverse the epigenetic inactivation of CDH1. The long-term goal would be to identify a drug or drugs that can be used in combination with gastroscopic surveillance in the management of HDGC families. The first objectives in this research programme will be to develop the necessary techniques to measure epigenetic changes in gastric biopsy samples and then to systematically characterise the changes induced by selected epigenetic drugs to gain confidence that they will be useful in cancer prevention without causing limiting side effects. If these steps progress well over the next couple of years, we would progress to testing the drug(s) in formal clinical trials.