Armed with a $100 million war chest, the International Cancer Genome Consortium will see the world's top scientists joining forces to decode cancer's genetic blueprint.

Modelled after the Human Genome Project effort that sequenced all human genes, the new project hopes to change the face of cancer treatment, diagnosis and prevention.

'Cancer's complexity poses an enormous challenge,' said Dr Elias Zerhouni, director of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) which is part of the decade-long effort.

'NIH is highly encouraged that the worldwide scientific community is joining together to meet this challenge.'

The group will study over 50 types of cancers, taking tumour samples from about 25,000 patients. The information will be released to researchers for free to help them fast-track their work.

Genes are playing an increasing role in the fight against cancer, and new cancer drugs are, more and more, targeting specific genes.

Having an intimate knowledge of cancer genes means doctors can better diagnose and treat the disease, the top killer in Singapore.

Worldwide, more than 7.5 million people die of cancer each year, and 12 million new cases were diagnosed last year. With people living longer, these numbers are expected to more than double by 2050.

Said Dr Thomas Hudson of the cancer consortium's secretariat: 'Clearly, there is an urgent need to reduce cancer's terrible toll.'

To help meet the need, he said, the group would produce comprehensive catalogues of the genetic mutations involved in major cancers.

Cancer researchers here are excited by the international nature of the project.

Associate Professor Goh Boon Cher, senior consultant at the National University Hospital's department of haematology-oncology, said: 'It allows comparisons of the cancer genome across different ethnic groups, which would be essential to understanding the diversity of cancer throughout the world.'

The group hopes to collect 500 tumours for each of the 50 cancers from around the world.

So far, the project has attracted funding of about US$80 million (S$109 million) for five years.

It has about 10 member countries now, contributing in different ways, such as funding, expertise and tissue samples. Among its members are Britain's Wellcome Trust, the Chinese Cancer Genome Consortium and the European Commission.

Singapore, one of the members which helped conceptualise the organisation, is represented by the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS).

GIS is contributing its technology to map out the precise rearrangement of genes in cancerous tumours.

Said its executive director, Professor Edison Liu: 'It is the first time this is being done for cancer and we hope to have a complete genetic map of human cancer.

'The first human genome project, which also took about 10 years, changed how we studied biology. In another 10 years, we hope to use this work to revolutionise cancer treatments.'

wycin@sph.com.sg