Cancer Research has backed a group of Cambridge scientists with a £40 million funding over the next five years covering two projects into the study of cancer.

Two of the four grants have been awarded to the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Professor Greg Hannon will lead a team at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, part of the University of Cambridge, to work with researchers in America, Ireland, Canada and Switzerland to aim to build 3D versions of breast tumours which can be studied using virtual reality – with the aim of studying cancer cells in more detail.

It is hoped this way of studying breast cancer could change how the disease is diagnosed, treated and managed.

Professor Hannon said: “This is an enormous challenge. I liken it to the idea of putting a man on Mars – there’s so much technology that you have to develop to do it. All sorts of things are happening in tumours that we can’t study using the technology we have. But with our project, we hope to change that.

“We want to create an interactive, faithful, 3D map of tumours that can be studied in virtual reality that scientists can ‘walk into’ and look at it in great detail. By doing this, we could learn more about tumours and begin to answer questions that have eluded cancer scientists for many years."

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute will aim to form a deeper understanding into the causes of cancer with Professor Sir Mike Stratton leading the team.

Environmental factors and behaviours like smoking and drinking alcohol can cause cancer by damaging DNA. The damage occurs in distinctive patterns known as mutational fingerprints.

There are at least 50 cancer-associated mutational fingerprints but researchers only know what causes around half of them. Professor Stratton’s team hope to fill in the missing gaps and determine the as yet unknown causes of cancer.

They’ll do this by studying 5,000 pancreatic, kidney, oesophageal and bowel cancer samples, which come from five continents, generating as much cancer DNA sequence data as the whole world has produced so far. It is hoped this work could help prevent more cancers and reduce the global burden of the disease.

Professor Stratton said: “The main aim of our Grand Challenge is to understand the causes of cancer. Every cancer retains an archaeological trace, a record in its DNA, of what caused it. It’s that record that we want to explore to find out what caused the cancer.

“The thing that’s really exciting me is the challenge of making it all happen. And I’m looking forward to seeing the answers this work brings.”