UCL is ranked as one of the top 10 Universities in the world, and has one of the largest faculties dedicated to cancer medicine.
The UCL Cancer Institute is the central hub for cancer research at UCL. Particular strengths include cancer stem cells, haematological cancers (lymphoma and leukaemia), brain cancer, adolescent bone cancer and clinical trials.
UCL is affiliated with a number of London teaching hospitals, including University College London Hospital (UCL), the Royal Free Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. The ' UCH MacMillan Cancer Centre' will be a world-class outpatient cancer care facility opening in 2012. It is located directly opposite the UCL Cancer Institute in Huntley Street. This location provides a unique opportunity for close collaboration between scientists at the Cancer Institute and clinicians in the Cancer Centre, and will accelerate the translation of laboratory discoveries into innovative practical developments that will benefit patients.
Our Researchers:
 Tariq Enver has joined UCL’s Cancer Institute as Professor of Stem Cell Biology. He previously led a research team at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at Oxford University. Professor Enver is internationally known for his work on haematopoietic and leukemic stem cells. His team has made a series of important conceptual and practical advances in the study of blood stem cells and leukaemias. His studies of normal blood stem cells have established the principals of how stem cells are configured in terms of their genetic circuitry. These studies have already identified new genes that may be used to expand stem cells present in cord blood - a procedure that would significantly broaden the use of cord blood stem cells for transplantation of adults with leukaemia. Professor Enver is currently applying the methodologies of the emerging interdisciplinary field of systems biology to develop these studies which should further enhance our ability to devise rational strategies to control stem cells and get them to behave in the way we would like them to both in the laboratory and in the patient. |
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 Dr Andres Virchis has Graduated from University College London with a BSc (upper second) in Immunology 1985 and Medicine and Surgery 1988.
Please click here to view his Biodata. |
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Rajeev Gupta is a Senior Lecturer in Haematology at UCL and Honorary Consultant Haematologist at UCL Hospitals. He attended Leeds Medical School and gained his PhD at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill before completing specialist training in Haematology at Hammersmith Hospital London. Prior to his appointment at UCL he was a consultant Haematologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he specialized in lymphoma medicine. He has worked closely with Prof. Enver for 10 years to develop research interests in stem cell biology and the biology of lymphoid cancers. |
What is Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) is a ‘catch-all’ term that describes cancers of a type of blood cell called lymphocytes. They affect all parts of the body. These diseases vary greatly in their severity - some are rapidly fatal and others are more indolent. Most patients will ultimately require treatment though, and this can involve chemotherapy, radiotherapy or even bone-marrow transplantation. In Britain, around 6000 people will die from NHL every year.
Why do patients die from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?
There are three major problems facing doctors who look after patients with NHL. Firstly, although initial response rates to standard chemotherapy treatments are generally good, there is a sizeable minority of patients who don’t respond. They are said to have primary non-responsive disease. Secondly, in those who do respond, the disease will come back without additional courses of treatment. Even after this extra treatment, many NHL patients who have been given ‘the all-clear’ will ultimately relapse; overall only 60% of patients with the commonest type of NHL are cured. The third problem is that conventional treatments are poisonous to normal cells in the body - current chemotherapy drugs are in general, quite blunt tools. They have many side effects ortoxicities, which can prove fatal. It is these three issues that we shall address in our work at the UCL Cancer Institute.
What research will be done at UCL Cancer Institute to help improve treatment?
Cancer arises when normal cells in the body acquire changes in their genes (mutations) that allow them to grow out of control. Specialised DNA sequencing technologies have demonstrated that within any cancer in any individual patient, there are lots of different abnormal cells carrying a range of mutations. Some combinations of mutations may allow cells to resist conventional treatment and may lead to relapse. Furthermore, evidence from other cancers suggests that some cells specifically maintain the disease as a whole and if they are not removed by treatment, are responsible for relapse. Using state-of-the-art techniques, we shall examine these issues in NHL by isolating and studying the cells that remain after treatment in our patients. By understanding the biology and genetics of chemotherapy resistant cells, we can design new drugs with fewer side effects that specifically target them.
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