Researchers from four continents have come together to launch the `International Cancer Genome Consortium' (ICGC), a major collaboration designed to identify the key genetic mutations involved in up to 50 types of cancer.

The consortium will group researchers from the  US National Institutes of Health, as well as cancer and genetic research groups from Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Japan and Singapore.

The consortium, which includes the Wellcome Trust and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK, will generate a valuable resource enabling the development of new and better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing cancer, a release on the Welcom Trust website said.

The ICGC hopes to build on the success of the UK's Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The team will use the DNA sequencing of thousands of cancer genomes to catalogue all the changes and obtain a complete picture of the abnormalities that lead to cancer.

A research team of the Cancer Genome Project led by Mike Stratton at the Sanger Institute had found far more mutations to be involved in cancer than originally thought. The research team also established that the BRAF gene is commonly mutated in malignant melanoma and some other tumours.

The international alliance would use high-speed technology to scan the DNA of tumor cells in order to pinpoint genetic coding errors linked to different cancers.

"With the advent of new faster DNA sequencing technologies the ICGC now has set the hugely ambitious aim of fully sequencing thousands of cancer genomes to catalogue all the changes in DNA and obtain a complete picture of the abnormalities that lead to cancer," Welcome Trust said.

"International cooperation in health research is essential to maximise the opportunities that we have to find the cures and treatments for some of the most serious diseases which we face," British prime minister Gordon Brown said while welcoming the new initiative.

"Our research is uncovering a dramatic view in which the human genome in cancer cells is ravaged by changes," says Professor Stratton, co-head of the Cancer Genome Project at Sanger. "Some of these alterations cause the disease while others are just tagging along for the ride.

"In the past we have had piecemeal or low magnification views of the cancer genome. With the advent of new faster DNA sequencing technologies the ICGC now has set the hugely ambitious aim of fully sequencing thousands of cancer genomes to catalogue all the changes in DNA and obtain a complete picture of the abnormalities that lead to cancer with the aim of improving diagnosis and treatment."

The new research will have clinical significance around the globe, aiming to study cancers of all major organs, including breast, ovary, prostate, lung and blood cancers.

ICGC members will assume responsibility for specific cancers, and facilitate the exchange of information to avoid duplication of effort. All the data generated will be made rapidly and freely available to the global research community.

In 2007, more than 7.5 million people died of cancer worldwide and more than 12 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed; these numbers are expected to rise to 17.5 million deaths and 27 million new cases by 2050.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute announced  results from the first ever genome-wide study of cancer samples using new technology sequencing of the type that will be the backbone of the ICGC. The research, published in Nature Genetics, shows that in some cancers the human genome has been rearranged to a remarkable extent with hundreds of fractures being reset wrongly, resulting in an extraordinary reshuffling of DNA. This ground-breaking research will set the stage for the ICGC.

The ICGC, which is extending an invitation to all nations to participate, currently includes:

• Australia: National Health and Medical Research Council (Observer Status)
• Canada: Genome Canada; Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
• China: Chinese Cancer Genome Consortium
• France: Institut National du Cancer
• Europe: European Commission (Observer Status)
• India: Department of Biotechnology, ministry of science and technology
• Japan: RIKEN; National Cancer Center
• Singapore: Genome Institute of Singapore
• United Kingdom: The Wellcome Trust; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
• United States: National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Each ICGC member will conduct a comprehensive, high-resolution analysis of the full range of genomic changes in at least one specific type or subtype of cancer, with studies built around common standards of data collection and analysis. Each project will require cancer specimens from 500 patients and have an estimated cost of $20 million.

"Clearly, there is an urgent need to reduce cancer's terrible toll," said Thomas Hudson, MD, of the ICGC Secretariat, which is based at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto.

"To help meet that need, the Consortium will use new genome analysis technologies to produce comprehensive catalogues of the genetic mutations involved in the world's major types of cancer. Such catalogues will be valuable resources for all researchers working to develop new and better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing cancer," he said.

ICGC member nations will agree to common standards for informed consent and ethical oversight. ICGC members will ensure that all samples will be coded and stored in ways that protect the identities of the participants in the study.

To maximise the public benefit from ICGC member research, data will be made immediately available to qualified investigators. In addition, all consortium participants will agree not to file any patent applications or make other intellectual property claims on primary data from ICGC projects.

The ICGC is open to all entities that agree to its policies and guidelines. A white paper detailing those policies and guidelines is available on the consortium's website.