The Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC) was established in 1956 by
The Auckland Cancer Society
as the Cancer Research Laboratory (CRL). Under the leadership
of Dr Bruce Cain, the CRL undertook studies in seeking active anti-tumour agents
from plants. Dr Cain's work was initially carried out in the School of Chemical Sciences of
The University of Auckland. The research subsequently shifted to temporary quarters,
firstly at the ex-army hospital at Cornwall Park and secondly to the DSIR Plant
Diseases Division at Mt Albert. Discussions between the society and Professor Peter
Herdson, foundation Professor of the Department of Pathology in The School of Medicine
of the University, led to an initiative by Professor Herdson to locate the CRL in
the Pathology Building in the Medical School complex.
In 1979, Dr Cain was made an honorary professor by the University and the CRL moved
into its current location. An agreement was signed between the University
and the society whereby the CRL was
attached administratively to the Department of Pathology and a rental was paid to
offset the cost of utilities and maintenance.
The Auckland Cancer Society
The Section of Oncology in the Department of Pathology was established in 1976 with
the appointment of Professor John Probert. In 1980 a radiobiology research project
was instituted, with
Dr W R Wilson appointed as a research scientist. Dr Wilson's work became
very closely integrated with that of the CRL. Both Professor Probert
and Dr. Wilson were initially accommodated on the same floor as the CRL, but with
the expansion of research staff, laboratory space became a key issue. The completion
of the Oncology Centre at Auckland Hospital provided much-needed space, and in 1987
Professor Probert and Dr Wilson moved to the Oncology Centre, with the CRL occupying
the whole of the first floor of the Pathology Building.
Dr W R Wilson
Further expansion of the CRL through new research contracts placed pressure on space.
The Department of Pathology responded to the situation generously, and through the
efforts of Professors Peter Herdson, Jeremy Jass and John Gavin, the CRL was able
to utilise Pathology Department space on the ground and third floors of the Pathology
Building.
During the 1980s and the 1990s, close relationships were developed with the Department
of Clinical Oncology at Auckland Hospital, particularly through the clinical trials
of the anticancer drugs developed in the CRL and with the Department of Pharmacology.
In 1995
Dr Mark McKeage,
a medical oncologist, was appointed to the Department of
Pharmacology to support the development of both experimental and clinical research
in Oncology.
Dr Mark McKeage
Following a review of the CRL in 1996, a Memorandum of Understanding
was signed between the Auckland Cancer Society and The University of Auckland, establishing
the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC) in January 1998 as an autonomous
research centre in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences of The University
of Auckland. The society continued to provide core funding, but CRL staff became
employees of the University.
Since that time the ACSRC has grown rapidly from about 30 to more than 70 staff.
It now occupies two floors in the Pathology Building, and comprises a multi-disciplinary
team carrying out research on the treatment and causes of cancer. Members of the
ACSRC supervise the work of a growing number of
research students,
and contribute
significantly to University teaching.
ACSRC staff have published over 900 scientific
papers and applied for more than 60 patents. The drug development work led to the
development of the anti-leukaemia drug amsacrine, which was the first synthetic
topoisomerase II inhbitor to be successfully trialled. Clinical trials began in
1978, and in 1983 it became available for the clinical treatment of leukaemia in
adults. Three further topoisomerase inhibitors have been developed to clinical trial
since then by the ACSRC, in collaboration with various partners: asulacrine (Sparta),
DACA (Xenova) and XR-11576 (Xenova/Millennium).
Find out more about our
Research students
ACSRC staff
Learn more about
Amsacrine
More recently, the ACSRC has focused mainly in three areas of research aimed at
developing drugs inherently more cancer-selective than the topoisomerase inhibitors.
One area is drugs that target the immature vasculature of solid tumours, limiting
their blood supply and thus their survival. This has resulted in the drug
DMXAA,
which was initially trialled at Auckland Hospital
in 2000, and
is now being developed with the UK company AntiSoma.
Learn more about
DMXAA
Learn
more about AntiSoma
The second approach is to target the protein products of genes that are dysfunctional
in cancer. A focus here is enzymes that comprise the growth signalling pathways
in cells, and the drug CI-1033 (an inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor)
entered clinical trial in the US in 2000. This drug was developed in conjunction
with Pfizer (Ann Arbor, USA), with whom the ACRSC has had a research collaboration
for more than 20 years.
The third approach is to improve the traditional cytotoxic (or cell-killing) drugs,
parcelling them up in a way that makes them more targeted to cancer cells, or less
toxic to normal cells but released in the original potent form in cancer cells.
There are several ways to do this, utilising specific physiological and genetic
features of cancer cells, and this is a major current focus of the ACSRC.
While
the society continues to provide core funding for the ACSRC's work, this is now
supplemented by substantial academic grants, including The Health Research Council
of NZ, The Cancer Society of NZ, The Auckland Medical Research Foundation, The Marsden
Fund of NZ, The New Enterprise Research Fund of NZ, The Wellcome Trust and The US
National Cancer Institute. Commercial contracts with a number of companies, notably
Pfizer Global Research and Development, but also Seattle Genetics, Xenova, Auckland
UniServices, Cancer Research Campaign Technology and others, have also become a
major source of funding.
As genomics (defining genes and their regulation) and proteomics (defining protein
structure and function) begins to dominate drug design, The ACSRC is moving to meet
this challenge. It was recently successful as a partner in an application to set
up the Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery at The University of Auckland. This will
bring a closer relationship with existing bioinformatics, genomics and structural
biology groups in The University of Auckland, helping to bring these skills to its
drug discovery programme.
Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery
The long-term success of the ACSRC, due in no small measure to the core funding
by The Auckland Cancer Society, has provided its staff with the opportunity to have
long-term careers in cancer research in New Zealand. It has become one of few academic
centres in the world with diverse staff skills and funding sources, a primary focus
on drug development, and success in the development of innovative drugs to clinical
use.
