Doctors have launched a major study to understand why a small percentage of cancer patients beat the odds and survive for so long after being diagnosed with some of the most aggressive forms of the disease, The Guardian reports.
Eight NHS cancer centres in the UK are joining forces with dozens of hospitals around the world to find patients who have shown exceptional response to cancer treatment and survived far longer than expected.
Scientists involved in the study will collect detailed biological information on 1,000 patients and their tumours, and analyse DNA, blood proteins, microbes and molecular biomarkers in the hope of understanding why they survive.
The knowledge gained will be used to understand the vulnerabilities of cancer and develop new treatments for aggressive tumours, with some treatments aiming to mimic key biological features seen in so-called super-survivors to improve the outlook for other patients. The study involves oncologists from more than 40 countries who want to enroll people who have survived exceptionally long after diagnosis with large-stage small cell lung cancer, aggressive glioblastoma of the brain, or metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The study is targeting patients who are in the top 3% for survival after diagnosis.
The Rosalind study is named after Rosalind Franklin, the British radiographer whose famous Photograph 51 captured the structure of DNA’s double helix.
The photograph was taken in 1952, six years before Franklin died of ovarian cancer. The data collected from the super-survivors will be stored in a global database managed by French startup Cure51, which is funding the Rosalind project with investment from Paris-based venture capital firm Sofinnova.