The CRUK Convergence Science Centre is a partnership between Imperial College London and The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). We aim to bring together researchers from different disciplines across both institutions to develop innovative ways to address challenges in cancer research to benefit patients.
This seminar series brings together speakers from Imperial and ICR to present their research and how they use convergence science to answer cancer-related questions.
Both speakers are clinician researchers working in gastrointestinal cancer, bringing perspectives from upper GI surgery, medical oncology and cancer research
Dr Stefan Antonowicz (Imperial)
Overcoming metabolic variation in oesophageal adenocarcinoma
Why do some parts of a tumour respond and not others? For patients with oesophageal cancer this really matters as still 80% die from their diagnosis. In this talk I will describe our approach for uncovering phenotypic variation in solid tumours, outline what drives this and what the implications are for patients, and potentially how we may overcome it.
Dr Izzie Cartwright (Royal Marsden)
ctDNA guided diagnosis and treatment of GI cancers, evaluation to implementation
ctDNA has emerged as a non-invasive biomarker for treatment selection, monitoring treatment response, identifying mechanisms of resistance and prognostication. In this talk I will discuss potential ctDNA applications in GI cancers from faster diagnosis of pancreatic and biliary tract cancers to advanced ctDNA technologies to guide adaptive therapy in advanced colon cancer.
Who can attend?
Researchers, students and anyone with an interest in convergence science relating to cancer research across Imperial and ICR (including Royal Marsden and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust) are welcome to register, please email icr-imperial-convergence.centre@imperial.ac.uk to receive the registration link.