Caption: Chandrasekhar Kanduri receives one of the larger grants from the Swedish Cancer Society – SEK 1,250,000 for the project on long non-coding RNA in tumor development and tumor progression.
GRANTS. 28 researchers at the University of Gothenburg are receiving a total of more than SEK 50 million in the Swedish Cancer Society’s latest call for proposals.
Chandrasekhar Kanduri, Professor of Medical Genetics, especially RNA epigenetics at the Department of Medical and Clinical Genetics, is receiving one of the largest grants from the Swedish Cancer Society. He is being granted SEK 1,250,000 per year over three years. The goal of the research is to develop new long non-coding RNA-based biomarkers that can be used for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.
“We are currently using more than 7,000 tumors from 20 kinds of cancer that have been characterized as a part of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We would eventually like to develop these RNA molecules as pharmaceutical targets for the treatment of cancer,” says Chandrasekhar Kanduri.
One of the other researchers receiving part of the research grant is Karin Sundfeldt, Adjunct Professor and Senior Physician at the Women’s Clinic.
“The grant from the Swedish Cancer Society is a great honor and gives us the possibility of working long term with our research projects. I hope the results can increase the survival of women with gynecological cancer,” says Karin Sundfeldt.
Karin Sundfeldt will receive SEK 800,000 per year for three years for her research on ovarian cancer. Cancer of the ovaries afflicts around 700 Swedish women every year, and is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. This is because the sickness often does not provide clear symptoms until it has spread in the abdominal cavity, and then, fewer than 30 percent are still alive five years after the diagnosis. By studying samples from ovarian tumors, Karin Sundfeldt wants to find out if different markers that can reveal cancer can be found in the blood. Another possibility could be cell samples from the uterus or from a cyst in the ovary, and finding traces there of a potential tumor.
“A good test method in the future could be used in the screening of healthy women, like pap smear tests against cervical cancer. By finding the ovarian cancer at an early stage, the survival rate could increase dramatically to nearly 90 percent,” says Karin Sundfeldt, who is also receiving funding for researcher months for the clinically active from the Swedish Cancer Society.
“The research on new markers in blood or other bodily fluids that aims to develop early diagnostics is in a very dynamic phase. It is particularly pleasing to be able to award grants to such a project in ovarian cancer, which is often discovered too late to be cured,” says Klas Kärre, Chairman of the Research Committee of the Swedish Cancer Society.
