Summary
I hold a BSc in Biomedical Science and an MSc in Neuroscience (UCL). I have worked within Imperial NHS Trust and College since 2014, working in neuro-oncology, initially as a Multi-Disciplinary Team co-ordinator, and since August 2017 as the Clinical Research Practitioner at Imperial College Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence.
I have gained hands on experience of coordinating research studies, working in multi-disciplinary teams, presenting, undertaking Societal Engagement and Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) work. In the last year I have had the opportunity to start to explore quality of life (QoL) in patients with recurrent gliomas undergoing non-standard but this has been very limited due to the small numbers. This has led me to be interested in better ways of assessing QoL in our patient population.
The main focus of my work is to forge closer lab/ clinical links to facilitate translational research, coordinating and facilitating brain tumour lab tours for patients and public and to streamline the tissue banking process for brain tumours.
I was awarded a Biomedical Research Centre Patient Experience Research Centre grant for my proposal on working with secondary school children in creating a 3D brain model and learning about the difficulties in diagnosing and treating brain tumours.
In order to ensure our clinical trials are in line with patient and carers beliefs and needs, I have organised and run multiple PPI sessions for the development of the neuro-oncology trials and helped to facilitate PPI sessions for neuro-surgical and neuro-radiological trials that are in the process of applying for grants. For further information around how to get into PPI please see my blog on the Imperial College website for Patient Experience Research Centre involvement .
I have led the introduction of health-related QoL and functional measures in neuro-oncology for patients with relapsed disease. Working with my clinical colleagues, we now routinely assess a variety of measures in patients with relapsed disease. I have recently been awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship for "Developing personalised, low-burden quality of life assessments for patients living with brain tumours." under the supervision of Professor Mary Wells and Dr Matt Williams (Computational Oncology group), this work will open up a new stream of QoL-based research, bringing together our expertise in neuro-oncology and innovative clinical trials with established expertise in QoL research.
Publications
Journals
Dadhania S, Pakzad-Shahabi L, Mistry S, et al., 2023, Triaxial accelerometer-measured physical activity and functional behaviours among people with High Grade Glioma: The BrainWear Study, Plos One, Vol:18, ISSN:1932-6203, Pages:1-21
Chen J, Sinclair G, Rozati H, et al., 2022, Improving on whole-brain radiotherapy in patients with large brain metastases: a planning study to support the AROMA clinical trial, Radiotherapy and Oncology, Vol:170, ISSN:0167-8140, Pages:176-183
Mi E, Mauricaite R, Pakzad-Shahabi L, et al., 2021, Deep learning-based quantification of temporalis muscle has prognostic value in patients with glioblastoma, British Journal of Cancer, Vol:126, ISSN:0007-0920, Pages:196-203
Conference
Pakzad-Shahabi L, Tallant J, Le Calvez K, et al., 2022, CAPABLE - ASSESSING THE PATIENT GENERATED INDEX METHODOLOGY IN HIGH GRADE GLIOMA PATIENTS AND CAREGIVERS, Annual Meeting of the British-Neuro-Oncology-Society (BNOS), OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, Pages:5-5, ISSN:1522-8517
Pakzad-Shahabi L, Tallant J, Le Calvez K, et al., 2022, CaPaBLE-Assessing the Patient Generated Index Methodology in High Grade Glioma Patients and Caregivers, OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, ISSN:1522-8517