Cancer is a major health problem in developed societies. It is anticipated that by 2015, close to 100,000 people in the Netherlands will be affected by cancer every year. Without further improvements in treatment, approximately 50,000 will die from the disease.
Improving diagnosis, therapy and cure rates are of great importance to all those affected as well as for society as a whole. Genomics is of growing importance for cancer research. Understanding the molecular basis of cancer is a prerequisite for the generation of new tools for cancer detection, disease prognosis and for developing novel
molecular-based therapies. The research programme of the Cancer Genomics Centre (CGC), established in 2002, span all
of these aspects.
The mission of the CGC is:
- To strengthen cancer genomics research in the Netherlands.
- To improve understanding of the disease process and to translate this knowledge into economic and societal value.
- To improve communication with stakeholders.
- To establish a platform for cancer research, valorisation and communication.
The CGC programme focuses on the identification and characterisation of new targets for prevention, diagnosis, early detection and therapeutic intervention. The research programme of the CGC comprises three themes:
- New diagnostics by genomic profiling
- Novel therapeutic targets
- Molecular mechanisms of cancer
