Molecular classification of carcinoma of unknown primary

Funding Activity

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Funded Activity Summary

Carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) is the fourth largest cause of cancer death. The condition has a particularly poor outlook, with a median survival of less than one year. Current methods for diagnosis of CUP include histopathology and sophisticated imaging. These are successful in approximately 40% of cases. Frequently the reason for the poor outcome in this disease is that the 60% of patients with CUP for whom no diagnosis is made do not benefit from chemotherapy specifically designed for a particular tumour origin. These patients receive a less effective, generic, chemotherapy. The aim of this project is to use microarrays to identify the gene expression profile in many known tumours to create a molecular fingerprint of the various tumour types. By comparing the fingerprint from a CUP with the database we should be able to identify the true tumour type in CUP, and allow patients to benefit from more specific chemotherapy.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2003

End Date: 01-01-2005

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $418,250.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Diagnostic Applications

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

cancer diagnostics | cancer prognostication | carcinoma of unknown primary | microarray expression profiling | molecular classification of cancers