Cancer is a broad term to describe over 180 different diseases with widely varying incidence, therapeutic and diagnostic options, and outcomes. The single unifying factor is that they are all diseases related to uncontrolled growth of otherwise normal cells. Cancer is the second leading cause of death amongst Americans accounting for 25% of deaths. The American Cancer Society estimates approximately 9 million Americans have a history of cancer and that during 2003 there will have been 1.3 million new cases diagnosed and 550,000 cancer-related deaths. It is expected that this incidence will double in the next 50 years due to an increasingly ageing population. The NIH estimates that cancer costs the US economy $107 billion annually, including $37 billion in direct medical costs and $70 billion in lost productivity through illness and early death. Cancer is a major problem for the healthcare profession and represents a significant challenge to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Proteome Sciences has a series of patents granted for biomarkers in blood for lung, breast, oesophagus, neuroblastoma and glioma and the usage of autoantibodies in serum.

For the vast majority of cancers, early diagnosis is a major problem, leading to difficulties in treatment. Whilst, there are many different clinical types of cancer, it is likely that many have similar underlying features, both in the cause of the tumour, and in their response to drugs. Proteomics has the power to identify the common features of different tumours and their mechanisms of drug resistance, which will allow development of better, targeted therapies, and perhaps most significantly to identify new biomarkers allowing early detection and hence better therapeutic outcomes.

Since 1996, Proteome Sciences has performed in depth analysis of tumour material and blood samples from patients with a number of different cancers and has developed proprietary technologies to enhance the discovery of tumour markers and new targets for drug discovery.

Historically, the cancer programme has principally been centred on a collaboration at the University of Michigan, USA, to identify protein markers associated with human tumours. The programme includes novel protein markers for lung, brain, colon and oesophageal cancers and is protected by a number of international and national patent applications. It also involved funding a group of clinicians and research in Europe, to address colorectal cancer, which subsequently incorporated as Europroteome.

Proteome Sciences was notified of the grant of a US Patent ‘Annexin Proteins and Autoantibodies as Serum Markers for Cancer’ in November 2003 which includes claims for the use of Annexins I and II proteins and antibodies to them for the diagnosis and treatment of lung, breast and oesophageal cancers. These cancers collectively account for an estimated 400,000 new cases each year in the US and approximately 1 million worldwide. A second patent was granted in the US in January 2004 for proteins associated with neuroblastoma and glioma.

Partnering

Proteome Sciences is keen to commercialise these markers for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer.  Discussions are ongoing with various prospective partners to set up a specialist cancer proteomics entity for early detection through to treatment, in parallel with the more conventional strategy of straightforward out-licensing of the biomarkers/technology, each by individual disease license.