Grant: Operating Grant

The common cancer treatment modality of radiotherapy could be used more effectively if the side effect it produces, normal tissue damage, could be eliminated or treated. Up to 30 percent of patients receiving radiation treatment of the thorax, breast, lung and oesophageal cancer; Hodgkins disease patients, develop alveolitis and fibrosis in the lungs. Genetic differences among people likely contribute to who develops this response and who does not. In the proposed research we will study animal models which present the same lung damage as cancer patients may suffer after radiation exposure, to identify specific genes which predispose to the development of these side effects. Such genes are more easily detected in animal models (than in the clinic) as breeding permits the needed number of animals to be created. The proposed investigations will use the latest advances and approaches of genomics research, related to the Human Genome project, to uncover specific lung response genes for later testing in a cancer patient population. This research would enable a therapeutic plan including a pretreatment marker to be developed from knowledge of specific genes of lung disease response, which would directly produce a reduction in morbidity & mortality from cancer, by sparing side effects and increasing the dose to the tumour, which may, in turn, increase cure rates.