VANCOUVER - A group of leading cancer researchers specializing in gastric (stomach) cancers will meet in Vancouver June 2-3 to focus their attention on a very rare and deadly form of inherited cancer known as hereditary diffuse gastric cancer. The BC Cancer Agency is sponsoring the workshop.

The International Gastric Cancer Linkage Consortium includes a wide range of physicians and scientists from Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada and the United States who are working together to improve understanding and ability to care for individuals with extreme risks for developing gastric cancer. The consortium is meeting for the two-day workshop to develop treatment guidelines for this particular form of cancer.

"It's a very rare form of cancer susceptibility but devastating for affected families. Individuals from these families have died of gastric cancer in their 20's and 30's," says Dr. David Huntsman, genetic pathologist with the hereditary cancer program at the BC Cancer Agency. "These families carry strong genetic mutations, which puts an individual's risk at 2000 times higher than the general population. Through the work of this consortium we have made major strides towards decreasing cancer mortality in these families."

Although only a small percentage of gastric cancers are hereditary diffuse gastric cancer cases, about a third of gastric cancer cases are caused by other inherited factors most of which are not yet well understood. Studying the genetic changes that take place in the rare hereditary diffuse gastric cancer cases will have an impact on better understanding the genetic factors involved in all gastric cancers.

Dr. Huntsman and his colleagues are part of a growing group of clinician scientists who work to bring genomic knowledge into clinical care and practice. "As genomic information proliferates, it will have a huge impact on health for care and cancers patients will be amongst the first to benefit. We are part of a global effort to shorten the distance between the genome and the bedside, this is an exciting time for researchers everywhere," says Huntsman, who studied cancer genetics at Cambridge University after specializing in pathology and molecular genetics in Vancouver.

For further details, please contact Dr. David Huntsman, BC Cancer Agency, at 604-877-6098, ext 2148