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• In 2003 the US first discovered the genome and became the preeminent nation in genomics
• This could change
• World power and influence have moved East
• China has invested heavily in genomic technologies and established itself as a significant competitive force in precision medicine
• Ownership of intellectual property and knowhow is key to driving national wealth 

The global competition to translate genomic data into personal medical therapies

 
Turning genomic data into medical benefits is very demanding. It requires a committed government willing and able to spend billions, a deep understanding of the relationship between genes and physiological traits, next generation sequencing technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) systems to identify patterns in petabytes (1 petabyte is equivalent to 1m gigabytes) of complex data, world-class bio-informaticians, who are in short supply; comprehensive and sophisticated bio depositories, a living bio bank, a secure data center, digitization synthesis and editing platforms, and petabytes of both genomic, clinical, and personal data. Before describing how the UK, US and China are endeavoring to transform genomic data into personal medicine, let us refresh our understanding of genomics.
  

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Genomics, the Human Genomic Project and epigenetics

 
It is widely understood that your genes are responsible for passing specific features or diseases from one generation to the next via DNA, and genetics is the study of the way this is done. However, it is less widely known that your genes are influenced by environmental and other factors. Scientists have demonstrated that inherited genes are not static, and lifestyles and environmental factors can precipitate a chemical reaction within your body that could permanently alter the way your genes react. This environmentally triggered gene expression, or epigenetic imprint, can be bad, such as a disease; or good, such as a tolerant predisposition. Epigenetics is still developing as an area of research, but it has demonstrated that preventing and managing disease is as much to do with lifestyles and the environment, as it is to do with inherited genes and drugs. If environmental exposure can trigger a chemical change in your genes that results in the onset of disease, then scientists might be able to pharmacologically manipulate the same mechanisms in order to reverse the disease.
 
DNA is constantly subject to mutations, which can lead to missing or malformed proteins, and that can lead to disease. You all start your lives with some mutations, which are inherited from your parents, and are called germ-line mutations. However, you can also acquire mutations during your lifetime. Some happen during cell division, when DNA gets duplicated, other mutations are caused when environmental factors including, UV radiation, chemicals, and viruses damage DNA.

You have a complete set of genes in almost every healthy cell in your body. One set of all these genes, (plus the DNA between them), is called a genome. The genome is the collection of 20,000 genes, including 3.2bn letters of DNA, which make up an individual. We all share about 99.8% of the genome. The secrets of your individuality, and also of the diseases you are prone to, lie in the other 0.2%, which is about 3 or 4m letters of DNA. The genome is known as ‘the blueprint’ of life’, and genomics is the study of the whole genome, and how it works. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is the process of determining the complete DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a point in time.
 
‘The Human Genome Project’ officially began in 1990 as an international research effort to determine a complete and accurate sequence of the 3bn DNA base pairs, which make up the human genome, and to find all of the estimated 20 to 25,000 human genes. The project was completed in April 2003. This first sequencing of the human genome took 13 years and cost some US$3bn. Today, it takes a couple of days to sequence a genome, and costs range from US$260 for targeted sequencing to some US$4,000 for WGS. Despite the rapidly improving capacity to read, sequence and edit the information contained in the human genome, we still do not understand most of the genome’s functions and how they impact our physiology and health.

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Roger Kornberg explains the importance of genomics
 

Roger Kornberg, Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University, and 2006 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, explains the significance of sequencing the human genome, “The determination of the human genome sequence and the associated activity called genomics; and the purposes for which they may be put for medical uses, takes several forms. The knowledge of the sequence enables us to identify every component of the body responsible for all of the processes of life. In particular, to identify any component that is either defective or whose activity we may adjust to address a problem or a condition. So the human genome sequence makes available to us the entire array of potential targets for drug development. . . . . The second way in which the sequence and the associated science of genomics play an important role is in regard to individual variations. Not every human genome sequence is the same. There is a wide variation, which in the first instance is manifest in our different appearances and capabilities. But it goes far deeper because it is also reflected in our different responses to invasion by microorganisms, to the development of cancer and to our susceptibility to disease in general. It will ultimately be possible, by analyzing individual genome sequences to construct a profile of such susceptibilities for every individual, a profile of the response to pharmaceuticals for every individual, and thus to tailor medicines to the needs of individuals.” See video below.
 

 

UK’s endeavors to transform genomic data into personal therapies

In 2013 the UK government set up Genomics England, a company charged with sequencing 100,000 whole genomes by 2017. In 2014, the government announced a £78m deal with Illumina, a US sequencing company, to provide Genomics England with next generation whole genome sequencing services. At the same time the Wellcome Trust invested £27m in a state-of-the-art sequencing hub to enable Genomics England to become part of the Wellcome Trust’s Genome Campus in Hinxton, near Cambridge, England. In 2015, the UK government pledged £215m to Genomics England.
 

DNA testing and cancer
“DNA sequencing is simply the process of reading the code that is in any organism . . . It’s essentially a technology that allows us to extract DNA from a cell, or many cells, pass it through a sophisticated machine and read out the sequence for that organism or individual,” says David Bowtell, Professor and Head of the Cancer Genomics and Genetics Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia; see video below. “DNA testing has becomeincreasingly widespread because advances in technology have made the opportunity to sequence the DNA of individuals affordable and rapid  . . . DNA testing in the context of cancer can be useful to identify a genetic risk of cancer, and to help clinicians make therapeutic decisions for someone who has cancer,” says Bowtell, see video below.

 

What is DNA sequencing?

What are the advanteges of a person having a DNA test?

Need for National Genome Board
Despite significant investments by the UK government, Professor Davies, England’s Chief Medical Officer, complained in her 2017 Annual Report that genomic testing in the UK is like a “cottage industry” and recommended setting up a new National Genome Board tasked with making whole genome sequencing (WGS) standard practice in the NHS across cancer care, as well as some other areas of medicine, within the next 5 years.
 

USA’s endeavors to transform genomic data into personal therapies

In early 2015 President Obama announced plans to launch a $215m public-private precision medicine initiative, which involved the health records and DNA of 1m people, to leverage advances in genomics with the intention of accelerating biomedical discoveries in the hope of yielding more personalized medical treatments for patients. A White House spokesperson described this as “a game changer that holds the potential to revolutionize how we approach health in the US and around the world.”
 
Data management challenges
The American plan did not seek to create a single bio-bank, but instead chose a distributive approach that combines data from over 200 large on-going health studies, which together involves some 2m people. The ability of computer systems or software to exchange and make use of information stored in such diverse medical records, and numerous gene databases presents a significant challenge for the US plan. According to Bowtell, “Data sharing is widespread in an ethically appropriate way between research institutions and clinical groups. The main obstacles to more effective sharing of information are the very substantial informatics challenges. Often health systems have their own particular ways of coding information, which are not cross compatible between different jurisdictions. Hospitals are limited in their ability to capture information because it takes time and effort. Often information that could be useful to researchers, and ultimately to patients, is lost, just because the data are not being systematically collected.” See video below.
 

 
 

China’s endeavors to transform genomic data into personal therapies

In 2016, the Chinese government launched a US$9bn-15-year endeavor aimed at turning China into a global scientific leader by harnessing computing and AI technologies for interpreting genomic and health data.  This positions China to eclipse similar UK and US initiatives.
 
Virtuous circle
Transforming genomic data to medical therapies is more than a numbers race. Chinese scientists are gaining access to ever growing amounts of human genomic data, and developing the machine-learning capabilities required to transform these data into sophisticated diagnostics and therapeutics, which are expected to drive the economy of the future.  The more genomic data a nation has the better its potential clinical outcomes. The better a nation’s clinical outcomes the more data a nation can collect. The more data a nation collects the more talent a nation attracts. The more talent a nation attracts the better its clinical outcomes.
 
The Beijing Genomics Institute
In 2010 China became the global leader in DNA sequencing because of one company: the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), which was created in 1999 as a non-governmental independent research institute, then affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in order to participate in the Human Genome Project as China's representative. In 2010, BGI received US$1.5bn from the China Development Bank, and established branches in the US and Europe. In 2011 BGI employed 4,000 scientists and technicians. While BGI has had a chequered history, today it is one of the world’s most comprehensive and sophisticated bio depositories.

The China National GeneBank
In 2016 BGI-Shenzhen established the China National GeneBank (CNGB) on a 47,500sq.m site. This is the first national gene bank to integrate a large-scale bio-repository and a genomic database, with a goal of enabling breakthroughs in human health research. The gene-bank is supported by BGI’s high-throughput sequencing and bio-informatics capacity, and will not only provide a repository for biological collection, but more importantly, it is expected to develop a novel platform to further understand genomic mechanisms of life. During the first phase of its development the CNGB will have saved more than 10m bio-samples, and have storage capacity for 20 petabytes (20m gigabytes) of data, which are expected to increase to 500 petabytes in the second phase of its development. The CNGB represents the new generation of a genetic resource repository, bioinformatics database, knowledge database and a tool library, “to systematically store, read, understand, write, and apply genetic data,” says Mei Yonghong, its Director.

Whole-genome sequencing for $100
The CNGB could also help to bring down the cost of genomic sequencing. It is currently possible to sequence an individual's entire genome for under US$1,000, but the CNGB aims to reduce the price to US$152. Meanwhile, researchers at Complete Genomics, a US company acquired by BGI in 2013, which has developed and commercialized a DNA sequencing platform for human genome sequencing and analysis, are pushing the technology further to enable whole-genome sequencing for US$100 per sample. China's share of the world's sequencing-capacity is estimated to be between 20% and 30%, which is lower than when BGI was in its heyday, but expected to increase fast. “Sequencing capacity is rising rapidly everywhere, but it's rising more rapidly in China than anywhere else,” says Richard Daly, CEO, DNAnexus, a US company, which supplies cloud platforms for large-scale genomics data.

The intersection of genomics and AI
Making sense of 1m human genomes is a major challenge, says Professor Jian Wang, former BGI President and co-founder, who has started another company called iCarbonX. Also based in Shenzhen, the company is at the intersection of genomics and AI. iCarbonX has raised more than US$600m, and plans to collect genomic data from more than 1m people, and complement these data with other biological information including changes in levels of proteins and metabolites. This is expected to allow iCarbonX to develop a new digital ecosystem, comprised of billions of connections between huge amounts of individuals’ biological, medical, behavioural and psychological data in order to understand how their genes interact and mutate, how diseases and aging manifest themselves in cells over time, how everyday lifestyle choices affect morbidity, and how these personal susceptibilities play a role in a wide range of treatments.

iCarbonX is expected to gather data from brain imaging, biosensors, and smart toilets, which will allow real-time monitoring of urine and faeces. The Company’s goal is to be able to study the evolution of our genome as we age and design personalized health predictions such as susceptibilities to diseases and tailored treatment options. iCarbonX’s endeavours are expected to dwarf efforts by other US Internet giants at the intersection of genomics and AI.
 

Ethical challenges

China’s single-minded objective to turn its knowhow and experience of genome sequencing into personal targeted medical therapies has made it a significant global competitive force in life sciences. However, precision medicine’s potential to revolutionize advances in how we treat diseases confers on it moral and ethical obligations. For personal therapies to be effective, it is important that genomic data are complemented with clinical and other personal data. This combination of data is as personal as personal information gets. There could be potential harm to the tested individual and family if genomic information from testing is misused. Reconciling therapy and privacy is important, because privacy issues concerning patients' genomic data can slow or derail the progression of novel personal therapies to prevent and manage intractable diseases. The stakes are high in terms of biosecurity, as genomic research is both therapeutic and a strategic element of national security. While it is crucial to leverage genomic data for future health, economic and biodefense capital, these data will also have to be appropriately managed and protected. Part 2 of this Commentary dives into these challenges a little deeper, and describes some of China’s competitive advantages in the race to become the world’s preeminent nation in genomics and precision medicine. 
 

Takeaways

Despite the endeavours of the UK and US to remain at the forefront of the international competition to transform genomic data into personalized medical therapies for some of the worlds most common and intractable diseases, it seems reasonable to assume that China is on the cusp of becoming the most dominant nation in novel personalized treatments. Notwithstanding, China’s determination to assume the global frontrunner position in genomic science might have blunted its concerns for some of the ethical issues, which surround the life sciences. To the extent that this might be the case the future of humanity might well differ significantly from the generally accepted western vision. 

• The clandestine status of cannabis and its attendant risks are beginning to erode
• The idea of cannabis as an evil drug is a relatively recent phenomenon
• Plants have been the historical source of medicine for most of human history, and cannabis is no exception
• There is a large and growing pharmacological and clinical interest in cannabis as medicine
• Two distinct legal markets for cannabis are emerging: the tightly regulated pharmaceutical market and the less regulated market of herbal preparations
• The FDA has approved cannabis-related drugs, which are used for a number of indications
• There may be a recognizable pathway leading to more cannabis compounds becoming medicine
• To become accepted as a medicine that doctors prescribe, pharmacists supply and healthcare providers support, cannabis compounds need to demonstrate their biochemical uniformity, stability, safety and efficacy

• Each year about 1.7m women are diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide and over 0.5m die from the condition
• Between 5% and 10% of these breast cancers result from harmful gene mutations
• BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations are the most common cause of hereditary breast cancer
• 45% to 85% of women with a BRCA mutation will develop breast cancer in their lifetime compared to 12% of women in the general population
• Most women do not know if they have a harmful BRCA mutation
• Testing for the BRCA gene is now affordable, fast and accessible
• Surgical interventions of women with BRCA mutations can significantly reduce their risk of developing breast cancer and substantially increase cancer survival
• Genetic test results for breast cancer are fraught with uncertainty because testing reveals the likelihood of developing cancer rather than a certain fate
• Research suggests that BRCA test results are not being clearly communicated to women
• Best practice demands that expert counselors discuss genetic testing and help interpret results

Cancer is a group of diseases that cause cells in your body to change and grow out of control: they mutate. Most types of cancer cells eventually form a lump or mass called a tumor, and are named after the part of the body where the tumor originates, e.g. “breast cancer”, although this convention is changing with the development of targeted personalized medicine. The exact cause of breast cancer is unknown, but the overwhelming majority result from some combination of environment, lifestyle, and genes. Breast cancer affects about 1 in 8 women at some point during their life, usually after the menopause, and is the most common cancer in women.  The majority of breast cancers begin in the parts of the breast tissue that are made up of glands for milk production, called lobules, and ducts that connect the lobules to the nipple. The remainder of the breast is made up of fatty, connective, and lymphatic tissue. Most invasive breast cancers (those that have spread from where they started) are found in women 55 and older. Women with a family history of the disease have an increased risk of getting breast cancer. Each year about 1.7m women are diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide, and over 0.5m die from the condition. However in developed economies more and more women survive the disease. In the US, for instance, the average 5-year survival rate for people with breast cancer is 89%. The 10-year rate is 83%, and the 15-year rate is 78%. Other developed countries have similar success rates. What makes breast cancer fatal is if it spreads to the bones, lungs, liver and other organs. Early detection in order to improve breast cancer outcomes remains the cornerstone of the condition’s management. Although breast cancer is thought to be a disease of the developed world, it is increasing rapidly in emerging countries where the majority of cases present later and die earlier than women in developed countries: almost 50% of breast cancer cases and 58% of deaths occur in emerging economies. This is because women generally have relatively poor knowledge of the risk factors, symptoms and methods for early detection. Also, they experience cancer fatalism, believe in alternative medicine, and lack of autonomy in decision making, which often results in delays in seeking or avoidance of evidence-based medicine.

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Mammography

 
Mammography, which has long been the mainstay of breast cancer detection, is a specific type of breast imaging that uses low-dose x-rays to detect small changes in the breast before there are any other signs or symptoms of the disease when it is most treatable. Mammography is noninvasive, relatively inexpensive, and has reasonable sensitivity (72–88%), which increases with age. It can also be used to detect and diagnose breast disease in women experiencing symptoms such as a lump, pain, or nipple discharge. If breast cancer is found at an early stage, there is an increased chance for breast-conserving surgery and a better prognosis for long-term survival. Most developed countries operate breast-screening programs, which regularly provides mammography for women between certain ages.
 

Advances in mammography

In recent years, mammography has undergone increased scrutiny for false positives and excessive biopsies, which increase radiation dosage, cost and patient anxiety. In response to these challenges, new forms of mammography screening have been developed, including; low dose mammography, digital mammography, computer-aided detection, tomosynthesis, which is also called 3-D mammography, automated whole breast ultrasound, molecular imaging and MRI. Notwithstanding, there is increasing awareness of subpopulations of women for whom mammography has reduced sensitivity. More recently, women have turned to genetic testing to gain a better understanding of their risk of inherited breast cancer.
 

Genes

Every cell in your body contains genes. These contain the genetic code for your body, which not only determines the color of your eyes and hair etc., but also provides information that affects how the cells in your body behave: for example, how they grow, divide and die. Information in your genes is inherited from both parents, and you pass on this information to your children. A change in your genetic code that affects the function of a gene is called a mutation. Many inherited gene mutations do not have any effect on your health, but some do; the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations account for 20 to 25% of all inheritable female breast cancers and 15% of ovarian cancers.
  

BRCA genes

In normal cells, BRCA genes are tumor suppressor genes that assist in preventing cancer developing by making proteins that help to keep cells from growing abnormally. Mutated versions of BRCA genes cannot stop abnormal growth, and this can lead to cancer. Mutated BRCA genes have a higher prevalence in certain ethnic groups, such as those of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

In the video below Professor Robert Leonard, a medical oncologist and an authority on breast cancer, describes how BRCA genes are influential in breast and ovarian cancer risk. BRCA1 runs in families and may also increase a woman’s risk of developing fallopian tube and peritoneal cancers. BRCA2 also runs in families, and is more breast cancer-specific, but a less commonly inherited abnormality. Both or either of these genes may not be detectably abnormal even in a family with a strong inherited pattern of breast cancer, but there is a significant possibility that you will find them in people with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer. Breast and ovarian cancers associated with BRCA mutations tend to develop at younger ages than their non-hereditary counterparts.
 

 

Enhanced risk when family members have cancer
 

In December 2013, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended that women who have family members with breast, ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer be evaluated to see if they have a familial history that is associated with an increased risk of a harmful mutation in one of the BRCA genes. Compared to women without a family history of cancer, risk of breast cancer is about 2 times higher for women with a close female relative who has been diagnosed with cancer; nearly 3 times higher for women with two relatives, and nearly 4 times higher for women with three or more relatives. Risk is further increased when the affected relative was diagnosed at a young age. Notwithstanding, the Preventive Services Task Force recommends against BRCA testing for women with no family history of cancer.
  

The Angelina Jolie effect

The Hollywood actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie lost her grandmother and aunt to breast cancer and her mother to ovarian cancer. After discovering that she carried a maternally inherited pathogenic BRCA1 mutation, and being told that she had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer, and a 50% chance of ovarian cancer, Jolie elected to have her breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. After surgery her risk of developing breast cancer in later life fell to 5%.
 
In May 2013, Jolie described her decision in a New York Times (NYT) article,  “I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience . . . . . Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.”
 

Over testing of by low-risk women
 

Findings published in December 2016 in the British Medical Journal suggest that tests for the BRCA genes shot up by 64% following Jolie’s article. Researchers analysed data on US health insurance claims from more than 9m women between 18 and 64, and suggested that in just 2 weeks following Jolie’s NYT disclosure, 4,500 additional BRCA tests were carried out, which cost the US healthcare system some US$13.5m. Interestingly, increased testing rates were not accompanied by a corresponding increase in mastectomy rates, which suggests that additional testing did not identify new BRCA mutations. Thus, the Angela Jolie effect might have encouraged over-testing among low-risk women.
 
Mindful of her influence on women’s decisions, in 2015 Jolie wrote another NYT article in which she attempted to correct her earlier support for radical risk reduction surgery for women carriers of BRCA mutations. She said that because surgery worked for her, it is not necessarily the optimal therapeutic pathway for all women, and stressed that non-surgical treatments could be more appropriate.
 

Traditional genetic testing for breast cancer risk was slow and expensive

Genetic testing to detect BRCA mutations has been available since 1996, but for many years it was under-used because of its scarcity, high cost, and the length of time it took to produce a result. The rapid development and plummeting costs of genetic testing, and a 2013 US Supreme Court ruling, which invalidated the patents held by Myriad Genetics Inc., which restricted BRCA testing, have resulted in the growth and accessibility of genetic testing.
 

BRCA testing is not straightforward

There are hundreds of mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that can cause cancer. Several different tests are available, including tests that look for a known mutation in one of the genes (i.e., a mutation that has already been identified in another family member), and tests that check for all possible mutations in both genes. Commercial laboratories usually charge between US$450 and US$5,000 to carry out BRCA testing, depending on whether you are being tested for only a specific area(s) of a gene known to be abnormal or if hundreds of areas are being examined within multiple genes. Tests that use traditional technology take several months to report findings. This means that even if a woman is tested at the time of diagnosis, she might not know the results before she has to decide on treatment.
 

Importance of regulated testing laboratories

Testing for the BRCA genes usually involves a blood sample taken in a doctor’s clinic and sent to a commercial laboratory. In 1988, the US Congress passed the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) to ensure quality standards, and the accuracy and reliability of results across all testing laboratories. Since then, all legitimate genetic testing in the US is undertaken in CLIA-approved facilities. During testing for BRCA mutations, the genes are separated from the rest of the DNA, and then scanned for abnormalities. Unlike other clinical screening such as HIV tests and colonoscopies, which provide a simple positive or negative result; genetic testing is fraught with uncertainty because it reveals the likelihood of developing cancer rather than a certain fate.
 

BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic test results
 

A positive BRCA test result indicates that you have inherited a known harmful mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. This means that you have an increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers, but it does not mean that you will actually develop cancer. Some women who inherit a harmful BRCA mutation will never develop cancer. A positive test result may create anxiety and compel clinicians to perform further tests and women to undergo premature and unnecessary clinical interventions, other women in a similar situation will opt for regular screening.
 
The potential benefits of a true negative result include a sense of relief regarding your future risk of cancer, learning that your children are not at risk of inheriting the family's cancer susceptibility, and that a range of interventions may not be required. However, a negative result sometimes can be difficult to interpret because its meaning partly depends on your family’s history of cancer, and whether a BRCA mutation has been identified in a blood relative. Further, scientists continue to discover new BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, and have not yet identified all potentially harmful ones. Therefore, it is possible that although you have a “negative” test result you might have a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, which has not been identified.
 

Counselling
 

Because of these uncertainties and the agonising choices women with suspected breast cancer face, health providers in most developed countries recommend counselling as part of breast cancer treatment pathways. In the video below Dr John Green, a medical oncologist knowledgeable about the influence of inherited BRCA gene mutations on treatment options underlines the importance of expert genetic counselling to help women navigate their therapeutic pathways. Counselling is performed by a health professional experienced in cancer genetics, and usually includes the psychological risks and benefits of genetic tests, a hereditary cancer risk assessment based on a person’s personal and family medical history; a description of the tests, their technical accuracy and appropriateness, medical implications of a positive or a negative test result, the possibility of uncertain or ambiguous test results, cancer risk-reducing treatment options, and the risk of passing on a mutation to children. Because people are more aware of the genetic mutations linked to breast cancer, the demand for genetic testing and counselling have increased, and in some instances it is challenging for genetic counsellors to keep pace with demand.
 

 

The context in which genetic tests are carried out

A 2017 study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggests that genetic test results for breast cancer are not being clearly communicated to women, and this could cause them to opt for treatments that are more aggressive than they actually need. To reduce this possibility the Royal Marsden NHS Trust Hospital in London has introduced the Mainstreaming Cancer Genetics programme. Since 2014 the Marsden has employed genetic counseling and used laboratories with enhanced genetic testing capabilities. This reduces processing time and costs, helps to meet the increased demand for rapid, accurate and affordable BRCA testing, and helps women make critical decisions about their treatment options.
 
“There were two main problems with the traditional system for gene testing. Firstly, gene testing was slow and expensive, and secondly the process for accessing gene testing was slow and complex,” says Nazneen Rahman, Professor and Head of Cancer Genetics at the UK’s Institute for Cancer Research in London. “We used new DNA sequencing technology to make a fast, accurate, affordable cancer gene test, which is now used across the UK. We then simplified test eligibility and brought testing to patients in the cancer clinic, rather than making them have another appointment, often in another hospital,” says Rahman.

The Marsden is now offering tests to three times more patients a year than before the program started. The new pathway is faster, with results arriving within 4 weeks, as opposed to the previous 20-week waiting period. According to Rahman, “Many other centres across the country and internationally are adopting our mainstream gene testing approach. This will help many women with cancer and will prevent cancers in their relatives.”
 

Takeaways

The history of cancer is punctuated with overzealous interventions, many of which have had to be modified once it has been demonstrated that they could cause more harm than good.

As advanced genetic testing becomes affordable and more accessible it is important that their results are interpreted with the help of genetic counsellors in a broader familial context in order to help women make painfully difficult decisions about their treatment.
 
Migration to next generation genetic testing technologies has many benefits, but it also introduces challenges, which arise from, the choice of platform and software, and the need for enhanced bio-informatics analysts, which are in scarce supply. An efficient, cost-effective accurate mutation detection strategy and a standardized, systematic approach to the reporting of BRCA test results are central for diagnostic laboratories wishing to provide a service during a time of increasing demand and downward pressure on costs.

• 3m men in the US and 330,000 men in the UK are living with prostate cancer
• The standard test used to diagnose prostate cancer is inaccurate
• This inaccuracy causes anxiety in men and leads to unnecessary treatments
• Standard therapies for prostate cancer can result in incontinence and impotence
• Two new studies describe procedures that promise significant improvements in diagnosis and treatment

Prostate cancer is increasing in significance worldwide. In many industrialized countries such as the US and the UK, it is one of the most common cancers and among the leading causes of cancer deaths. In developing countries it may be less common, but its incidence and mortality rates have been on the rise. In the US there are some 3m men living with the disease.  It is expected that in 2017, 161,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the US, and 27,000 men will die from it. In the UK, there are some 330,000 men living with prostate cancer; each year around 47,000 men are diagnosed with the disease, and each year some 11,000 die from it, which equates to one every hour. Worldwide, there are an estimated 1.6m new cases of prostate cancer, and 366,000 prostate cancer deaths annually, making it the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and the seventh leading cause of male cancer death.
 

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The prostate and prostate cancer

The prostate is a small gland in men, which is located below the bladder and above the rectum. The urethra, which is the tube that carries urine and semen out of the body through the penis, goes through the centre of the prostate. In younger men the prostate is about the size of a walnut, but in older men it can be much larger. Symptoms of prostate cancer include persistent burning, difficult, frequent, uncontrolled or bloody urination in the absence of any infection. The average age of onset is 65 to 69. It is particularly prevalent in African-Caribbean men: affecting I in 4, and killing I in 12, which is double the rate for that of Caucasian men. The main risk factor is age: 80% of all men diagnosed with prostate cancer are over 65. Between 5% and 9% of cases occur in men with a family history of prostate, breast or ovarian cancer. Environmental factors are unclear, but rates of prostate cancer are lower in less urbanised societies, and rates rise when people move to a more westernised diet and lifestyle.

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The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test

In the 1980s a simple and cheap blood test was introduced to detect prostate cancer in its earliest, most curable, stage. In the video below Professor Karol Sikora, a cancer expert, describes the PSA test. Although used to detect prostate cancer, it is not a test for prostate cancer, and as a consequence, it has unresolved challenges. The most significant arises because the test is not accurate enough to either rule out or confirm the presence of cancer. Indeed, it is possible for PSA levels to be elevated when cancer is not present, and not to be elevated when it is present. More than 65% of men with elevated PSA levels do not have cancer. Excessive reliance on the test may lead to unnecessary interventions, while insufficient reliance may cause cancers to be missed.
 

 

Biopsies
 

A biopsy will often be recommended if a PSA test is high. It may also be recommended if a digital rectal examination (DRE) reveals a lump or some other abnormality in the prostate. The most commonly used biopsy for diagnosing prostate cancer is the trans-rectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy (TRUS-biopsy). This is a surgical procedure, in which tissue is removed from the prostate for microscopic examination. Each year, over 100,000 prostate biopsies are carried out in the UK and 1m in Europe.
 
75 to 80% of men who have TRUS-biopsies have no cancerous cells, and therefore did not need the biopsy. 20 to 25% do have cancerous cells, but a large percentage of these do not need any treatment because the cancers are slow growing.  A 2014 paper by the Harvard School of Public Health estimates that only 3% of men suspected of prostate cancer have an aggressive tumor requiring immediate intervention.
 
Further, doctors cannot tell from a biopsy whether cancerous cells are aggressive and need treatment, or whether they are developing slowly and do not require treatment. This creates confusion and anxiety among men, which prompts a percentage to opt for treatment even though the overwhelming majority do not need it. 25% of older men who elect to have treatment will become incontinent or impotent as a result, despite the fact that they did not need the treatment.
 

Active surveillance

 
In a significant proportion of men, prostate cancer cells grow slowly and never pose a serious risk to health and longevity. Evidence suggests that early treatment with either surgery or radiation does not reduce mortality rates, but leaves a significant percentage of men with urinary or erectile problems and other adverse effects. As a result, more men are willing to manage their condition by active surveillance, in which doctors monitor low-risk cancers closely and consider treatment only when the condition appears to make threatening moves toward growing and spreading. These men choose to live with prostate cancer until it advances, sometimes avoiding potentially life-altering side effects for several years. Active surveillance is a powerful solution to the problem of over-diagnosis and overtreatment.
 

New studies promise significantly improved management

Prostate cancer lags behind other cancers in diagnosis, treatment and research funding. But this is beginning to change. Over the past year, findings of two clinical studies promise significant improvements in the management of the condition.

The first, published in 2017 in the Lancet, describes a process, which uses MRI-guided biopsies to improve the accuracy of prostate cancer diagnosis, and spares those who do not have aggressive cancers from undergoing an unnecessary biopsy, so reducing the confusion and anxiety which prostate patients often experience.

The second, published in 2016 in the Lancet Oncology, describes findings of a laser-activated drug derived from bacteria found at the bottom of the sea that attacks and kills prostate cancer cells without either removing or destroying the prostate gland. This is significant because it avoids the potential adverse effects of surgery and radiotherapy, which can render patients incontinent and/or impotent. 
 

The multi-parametric MRI

The 2017 Lancet study used an advanced type of MRI scan, known as a multi-parametric MRI (MP-MRI), which in addition to recording the shape and size of the prostate, also assesses the blood flow through the gland. Led by Dr Hashim Ahmed of University College London, the study was comprised of more than 500 British men with suspected prostate cancer. Results suggest that using the MP-MRI to triage men would safely reduce the number needing a primary biopsy by about 27%, and substantially improve the detection of clinically significant cancers. If subsequent TRUS-biopsies were directed by MP-MRI findings, up to 18% more cases of clinically significant cancers might be detected compared with the standard pathway of TRUS-biopsy for all.
 

A paradigm shift in prostate cancer treatment

The second study compared the safety and effectiveness of a new therapy called vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy (VTP, also known as TOOKAD), with active surveillance in men with low-risk prostate cancer. It funded by STEBA Biotech, which holds the commercial licence for the therapy. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is not new, and has been used to treat skin and other cancers where light can easily penetrate.  VTP therapy, however, is viewed as a paradigm shift in prostate cancer care. It involves injecting a light-sensitive drug (padeliporfin or WST11) into the bloodstream, and then activating it with a laser to destroy cancerous tissue.  The benefit of this approach is damage to healthy prostate tissue is minimised, reducing the risk of side effects.
 

Findings

The study was comprised of 413 men at low risk of prostate cancer, and carried out across 47 treatment sites in 10 European countries, most of which were performing VTP therapy for the first time. Only men classified with low-risk cancer were included in this study. Participants were randomly assigned either to VTP therapy or active surveillance. At the end of two years, of the 196 men who received the VTP treatment, about half showed no signs of the disease, compared with 13.5% of those given standard care. Only 6% of the VTP group later needed radical treatment, compared with 30% of active surveillance patients. VTP treatment also doubled the average time of cancer progression from 14 to 28 months. Findings suggest that 49% of patients treated with VTP therapy went into complete remission compared with 13.5% in the control group.

A third of the VTP group experienced side effects compared to only 10 of the active surveillance group. Notwithstanding, the study concluded that, “VTP therapy is a safe, effective treatment for low-risk, localised prostate cancer, which might allow more men to consider a tissue-preserving approach and defer or avoid radical therapy”. Patient monitoring will continue in order to ascertain whether the cancer stays away. Further studies should help to understand better which cancers VTP  treatment is most appropriate for so that men can make more informed treatment decisions.

Study enhanced by MRI scanning
 

The study was conducted with people at low risk of prostate cancer. Those at very low risk are better off with no treatment and no adverse-effects. Professor Mark Emberton of University College London, the lead author of the study, believes the therapy will be most useful in patients in the “grey zone”, between low and high risk. “The fact that the treatment was performed so successfully by non-specialist centres in various health systems is really remarkable”, says Emberton because the lack of complication suggests that the treatment protocol is safe, and relatively easy to scale.

At the beginning of the study MRI scans were not universally available, and Emberton believes MRI scanning as suggested by the Ahmed 2017 study will have a significant positive effect on prostate cancer treatment in the future. When carrying out biopsies without guidance from MRI scans researchers had to guess where in the prostate the cancer was; so biopsies were sub-optimal. “If they were to do the study now, with the help of MRI scans, they could hit the cancerous parts of the prostate rather than going in blind and the results would be much better,” says Emberton.
 

Takeaways

 
These two recent studies are potential “game changers”. They promise to significantly enhance the management of prostate cancer and substantially reduce the uncertainty and anxiety, as well as the risks of the life altering side effects of treatment, experienced by millions of men living with the disease.

• Tobacco is a legacy recreational drug that causes cancers, and kills over 6m people each year
• No new food, drink, recreational or over the counter drug with a similar adverse health profile would ever be approved in the modern world
• Smoking causes 150 extra mutations in every lung cell
• New research demonstrates that smoking causes cancers in organs not exposed to smoke such as the bladder, kidney and pancreas
• Smoking triggers cell mutations that can cause cancer years after quitting
• Anti-smoking campaigns have decreased the prevalence of smoking, but incidence rates have increased because of population growth
• Identifying all the cancer genes will eventually improve treatments

Tobacco is the only legal drug that kills millions when used exactly as intended by manufacturers. New research into the root causes of cancer demonstrates how tobacco smoke mutates DNA, and gives rise to more than 17 types of cancers, and surprisingly, causes cancers in organs not directly exposed to tobacco smoke.
 

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Cell mutation and the body’s natural resistance

 
A mutation occurs when a DNA gene is damaged or changed in such a way as to alter the genetic message carried by that gene. The more mutations a cell acquires, the more likely it is to turn cancerous.

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Decreased prevalence, but increased incidence of smoking

Globally, smoking prevalence - the percentage of the population that smokes regularly - has decreased, but the number of cigarette smokers worldwide has increased due to population growth. Today, over 1bn people worldwide smoke tobacco, which each year causes nearly 6m early deaths, many different cancers, pain, misery and grief; not to mention the huge costs to healthcare systems and the loss of productivity.  If current trends continue tobacco use will cause more than 8m deaths annually by 2030. On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.
 

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Cancer and the body’s natural resistance

Cancer is a condition where cells in a specific part of the body mutate and reproduce uncontrollably. There are over 200 different types of cancer. Cancerous cells can invade and destroy surrounding healthy tissue and organs. Cancer sometimes begins in one part of the body before spreading to other areas. This process is known a metastasis. The body has a capacity to naturally resist cancer, through tumor suppressor genes, which function to restrain inappropriate mutations, and stimulate cell death to keep our cells in proper balance.New therapies that boost the body’s own immune system to fight cancer are believed to be a game-changer in cancer treatment.

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Cancer and the causes of cancer

Whitfield Growdon, a surgical oncologists from Harvard University Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, describes cancer and the causes of cancer:
 

What is cancer?



What causes cancer?

 

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Epidemiology of smoking

Today, it is widely accepted that tobacco use is the single most important preventable health risk in the developed world, and an important cause of premature death worldwide. The research of the British epidemiologists Richard Doll and Tony Bradford Hill, more than anyone else, is responsible for the link between tobacco use and lung cancer. Following reports of several case-controlled studies in the early 1950’s Doll and Hill published findings of a larger case-controlled study in 1954 in the British Medical Journal, which suggested that smoking was, "a cause, and an important cause" of lung cancer. This was followed by the publication of further research findings in 1956. Doll and Hill’s latter study confirmed their earlier case-controlled findings: that there is a higher mortality rate among smokers than in non-smokers, and a clear dose-response relationship between the quantity of tobacco used, and the death rate from lung cancer. Data also indicated a significant progressive reduction in mortality rates with the length of time following the cessation of smoking.

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US Surgeon General Report of smoking and lung cancer

The research of Doll and Hill, along with other cohort studies published in the 1950s, formed the basis for the game-changing 1964 report of the US Surgeon General, which concluded that, "Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men; the magnitude of the effect of cigarette smoking far outweighs all other factors". This led to groundbreaking research on tobacco use, and investments by governments and nonprofit organizations to reduce tobacco prevalence and cigarette consumption, which in some developed countries has been successful. In 2003, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was adopted by the World Health Organization, and has since been ratified by 180 countries.  
 

The best and the worst countries for smoking related lung cancer
 

Between 1980 and 2012 age-standardized smoking prevalence decreased by 42% for women and 25% for men worldwide. Canada, Iceland, Mexico, and Norway have reduced smoking by more than half in both men and women since 1980. The greatest health risks for both men and women are likely to occur in countries where smoking is pervasive and where smokers consume a large quantity of cigarettes. These countries include China, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, South Korea, the Philippines, Uruguay, Switzerland, and several countries in Eastern Europe. The number of cigarettes smoked worldwide has grown to more than 6 trillion. In 75 countries: smokers consume an average of more than 20 cigarettes a day.
 

Smoking-related deaths in the UK and US

19% (10m) of adults in the UK, and 17% (40m), of adults in the US are current cigarette smokers, a figure, which has more than halved since the mid 1970s. Results from a 50-year study shows that half to two thirds of all lifelong cigarette smokers will be eventually killed by their habit. Death is usually due to lung cancer, chronic obstructive lung disease and coronary heart disease. Many who suffer from these diseases experience years of ill health and subsequent loss of productivity. Every year, around 96,000 people in the UK, and 480,000 people in the US, die from diseases caused by smoking. This equates to 226 and 1,300 smoking-related deaths every day in the UK and US respectively.
 

Costs

In addition to death and sickness, tobacco use also imposes a significant economic burden on society. These include direct medical costs of treating tobacco-induced illnesses, indirect costs including loss of productivity, fire damage and environmental harm from cigarette litter and destructive farming practices. Cigarettes sales contribute significant tax revenues to national coffers; the industry employs tens of thousands of people who also pay taxes. Notwithstanding, the total burden caused by tobacco products outweighs any economic benefit from their manufacture and sale.
 

Direct link between the number of cigarettes smoked and cancers

Scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, UK, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and others have discovered a direct link between the number of cigarettes smoked and the number of mutations in the tumor DNA, and that smoking also causes cancers in organs not exposed to tobacco smoke.

Research published in the Journal Science in 2016 analyzed more than 5,000 cancer tumors from smokers and nonsmokers, and concluded that if you smoke even a few cigarettes a day you will erode the genetic material of most of the cells in your body, and thereby be at a significantly greater risk of cancer. "Before now, we had a large body of epidemiological evidence linking smoking with cancer, but now we can actually observe and quantify the molecular changes in the DNA due to cigarette smoking," says Ludmil Alexandrov, a theoretical biologist at Los Alamos National Labroratory and an author of the study.
 
The discovery means that people who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for a year, develop on average, 150 extra mutations in every lung cell, and nearly 100 more mutations than usual in each cell of the voice box, 39 mutations for the pharynx, 23 mutations for mouth, 18 mutations for bladder, and 6 mutations in every cell of the liver.
 

Smoking causes cancers not exposed to smoke
 

Scientists were surprised to find that tobacco smoke caused mutations in tissues that are not directly exposed to smoke. While more than 70 of the 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke have long been known to raise the risk of at least 17 forms of cancer, the precise molecular mechanisms through which these chemicals mutate DNA, and give rise to tumours in different tissues have never been altogether clear, until now. The study showed that some chemicals from tobacco smoke damage DNA directly, but others found their way to different organs and tissues, and ramp up the natural speed at which mutations built up in the tissues in more subtle ways, often by disrupting the way cells function. The more mutations a cell acquires, the more likely it is to turn cancerous.
 

Why some smokers get cancer and others do not

“It won’t happen to me. . . . My grandfather started smoking when he was 11, smoked 20 a day, and lived ‘til he was 90”. We have all heard this before. But we now know why some smokers get cancer and others do not. it is because of the way mutations arise. When a person smokes, the chemicals they inhale create mutations at random points in the genome. Many of these changes will be harmless, but others will not be so benign. The more smoke a person is exposed to, the greater the chance that the accumulating mutations will hit specific spots in the DNA that turn cells cancerous. Even decades after people stop smoking, former smokers are at a long-term increased risk of developing cancers.“You can really think of it as playing Russian roulette,” says Alexandrov.
 

Takeaways

Until now, it has not been fully understood how smoking increases the risk of developing cancer in parts of the body that do not come into direct contact with smoke.
 
Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, says that the findings from the research described above: “will feed into knowledge, methods and practice in patient care.” Dr Peter Campbell, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute says: “The knowledge we extract over the next few years will have major implications for treatment. By identifying all the cancer genes we will be able to develop new drugs that target the specific mutated genes, and work out which patients will benefit from these novel treatments.”