Quantitative 23Na magnetic resonance imaging in the abdomen at 3 T

Publication: Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine

Jonathan Birchall, Ines Horvat-Menih, Joshua Kaggie, Arnold Benjamin, Martin Graves, Ian Wilkinson, Ferdia Gallagher, Mary McLean

1 June 2024

Summary

We estimated the sodium content and relaxation of organs within the abdomen of healthy human volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Existing techniques for measuring sodium content are non-specific or require an invasive biopsy. Clinical translation of sodium content monitoring may aid in diagnosis of disease such as cancer, chronic kidney disease and hypertension at earlier stages, and more regular monitoring may help to evaluate efficacy of treatment.

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Risks of second primary cancers among 584,965 female and male breast cancer survivors in England: a 25-year retrospective cohort study

Publication: The Lancet regional health – Europe

Isaac Allen, Hend Hassan, Walburga Yvonne Joko-Fru, Catherine Huntley, Lucy Loong, Tameera Rahman, Bethany Torr, Andrew Bacon, Craig Knott, Sophie Jose, Sally Vernon, Margreet Lüchtenborg, Joanna Pethick, Katrina Lavelle, Fiona McRonald, Diana Eccles, Eva J.A Morris, Steven Hardy, Clare Turnbull,
Marc Tischkowitz, Paul Pharoah, Antonis C. Antoniou,

25 April 2024

Summary

Survivors of breast cancer are at significantly higher risk of developing second cancers, including endometrial and ovarian cancer for women and prostate cancer for men, according to new research studying data from almost 600,000 NHS England patients. Read the full news item.

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Substantial somatic genomic variation and selection for BCOR mutations in human induced pluripotent stem cells

Publication: Nature Genetics

Foad J. Rouhani, Xueqing Zou, Petr Danecek, Cherif Badja, Tauanne Dias Amarante, Gene Koh, Qianxin Wu, Yasin Memari, Richard Durbin, Inigo Martincorena, Andrew R. Bassett, Daniel Gaffney & Serena Nik-Zainal

11 August 2022


Summary

DNA damage caused by factors such as ultraviolet radiation affect nearly three-quarters of all stem cell lines derived from human skin cells, say Cambridge researchers, who argue that whole genome sequencing is essential for confirming if cell lines are usable. Read the full news story.

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Residual ctDNA after treatment predicts early relapse in patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer

Publication: Annals of Oncology

D. Gale, K. Heider, A. Ruiz-Valdepenas, S. Hackinger, M. Perry, G. Marsico, V. Rundell, J. Wulff, G. Sharma, H. Knock, J. Castedo, W. Cooper, H. Zhao, C.G. Smith, S. Garg, S. Anand, K. Howarth, D. Gilligan, S.V. Harden, D.M. Rassl, R.C. Rintoul, N. Rosenfeld

17 March 2022


Summary

Scientists from the Rosenfeld Group used a personalised blood test for patients, which is a type of liquid biopsy that can pick up tiny fragments of DNA that are released into the blood as tumours grow. This DNA, called circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), can reveal the state of the tumour, its location and potentially its weaknesses, which could be used to select the best treatments. Read the full story.

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A Feasibility Study of the Therapeutic Response and Durability of Short-term Androgen-targeted Therapy in Early Prostate Cancer Managed with Surveillance: The Therapeutics in Active Prostate Surveillance (TAPS01) Study

Publication: European Urology Open Science

Tristan Barrettab, Simon Paceyacde, Kelly Leonard, Jerome Wulff, Ionut-Gabriel Funinganacd,  Vincent Gnanapragasam

10 February 2022


Summary

Active surveillance (AS) is a preferred management option for men with prostate cancer with favourable prognosis. However, nearly half of men on AS switch to treatment within 5 years, so therapeutic strategies to prevent or delay disease progression could be considered.

Researchers explored image-based tumour responses and the patient impact of short-duration androgen-targeted therapy  to abrogate disease progression during AS.

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Multi-omic machine learning predictor of breast cancer therapy response

Publication: Nature

Stephen-John Sammut, Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar, Suet-Feung Chin, Elena Provenzano, Helen A. Bardwell, Wenxin Ma, Wei Cope, Ali Dariush, Sarah-Jane Dawson, Jean E. Abraham, Janet Dunn, Louise Hiller, Jeremy Thomas, David A. Cameron, John M. S. Bartlett, Larry Hayward, Paul D. Pharoah, Florian Markowetz, Oscar M. Rueda, Helena M. Earl & Carlos Caldas

7 December 2021


Summary

Breast cancers are complex ecosystems of malignant cells and tumour microenvironment.

The composition of these tumour ecosystems and interactions within them contribute to cytotoxic therapy response. Researchers collected clinical, digital pathology, genomic and transcriptomic profiles of pre-treatment biopsies of breast tumours from 168 patients treated with chemotherapy +/- HER2-targeted therapy prior to surgery.

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A prospective prostate cancer screening programme for men with pathogenic variants in mismatch repair genes (IMPACT): initial results from an international prospective study

Publication: The Lancet Oncology

Elizabeth K Bancroft, Elizabeth C Page, Mark N Brook, Sarah Thomas, Natalie Taylor, Jennifer Pope, Jana McHugh, Ann-Britt Jones, Questa Karlsson, Susan Merson, Kai Ren Ong, Jonathan Hoffman, Camilla Huber, Lovise Maehle, Eli Marie Grindedal, Astrid Stormorken, D Gareth Evans, Jeanette Rothwell, Fiona Lalloo, Angela F Brady, Marion Bartlett, Katie Snape, Helen Hanson, Paul James, Joanne McKinley, Lyon Mascarenhas, Sapna Syngal, Chinedu Ukaegbu, Lucy Side, Tessy Thomas, Julian Barwell, Manuel R Teixeira, Louise Izatt, Mohnish Suri, Finlay A Macrae, Nicola Poplawski,  Rakefet Chen-Shtoyerman, Munaza Ahmed, Hannah Musgrave, Nicola Nicolai, Lynn Greenhalgh,  Carole Brewer, Nicholas Pachter, Allan D Spigelman, Ashraf Azzabi, Brian T Helfand, Dorothy Halliday, Saundra Buys, Teresa Ramon y Cajal, Alan Donaldson, Kathleen A Cooney, Marion Harris, John McGrath, Rosemarie Davidson, Amy Taylor, Peter Cooke, Kathryn Myhill, Matthew Hogben, Neil K Aaronson, Audrey Ardern-Jones, Chris H Bangma,  Elena Castro, David Dearnaley, Alexander Dias, Tim Dudderidge, Diana M Eccles, Kate Green, Jorunn Eyfjord, Alison Falconer, Christopher S Foster, Henrik Gronberg, Freddie C Ha y, Oskar Johannsson, Vincent Khoo, Hans Lilja, Geoffrey J Lindeman, Jan Lubinski, Karol Axcrona, Christos Mikropoulos, Anita V Mitra, Clare Moynihan, Holly Ni Raghallaigh, Gad Rennert, Rebecca Collier, Judith Offman, Zsofia Kote-Jarai, Rosalind A Eeles,

19 October 2021


Summary

Lynch syndrome is a rare familial cancer syndrome caused by pathogenic variants in the mismatch repair genes MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, or PMS2, that cause predisposition to various cancers, predominantly colorectal and endometrial cancer. Data are emerging that pathogenic variants in mismatch repair genes increase the risk of early-onset aggressive prostate cancer. The IMPACT study is prospectively assessing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in men with germline mismatch repair pathogenic variants.

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Hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI for early response assessment of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients

Publication: Cancer Research

Ramona Woitek, Mary McLean , Stephan Ursprung, Oscar M Ruedae, Raquel Manzano Garcia, Matthew Locke, Lucian Beer, Gabrielle Baxter, Leonardo Rundo, Elena Provenzano , Joshua Kaggie , Andrew Patterson, Amy Frarya, Johanna Field-Raynera,b , Vasiliki Papalouka , Justine Kaneg, Arnold Benjamin, Andrew B Gill , Andrew Priest , David Lewis, Roslin Russell, Ashley Grimmera, , Brian Whitea , Beth Latimer-Bowmana, , Ilse Patterson, Amy Schiller , Bruno Carmo , Rhys Slough , Titus Lanzk , James Wason, Rolf Schultel, Suet-Feung Chine, Martin J Graves, Fiona J Gilbert, Jean E Abraham, Carlos Caldase, Kevin M Brindle , Evis Sala Ferdia A Gallagher

8 October 2021


Summary

Hyperpolarised carbon-13 MRI was used to detect response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer around one week after the start of treatment.

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Clinical Impact of the Predict Prostate Risk Communication Tool in Men Newly Diagnosed with Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer: A Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trial

Publication: European Urology

David Thurtle, Val Jenkins, Alex Freeman, Mike Pearson, Gabriel Recchia, Priya Tamer, Kelly Leonard, Paul Pharoah, Jonathan Aning, Sanjeev Madaanh, Chee Goh,  Serena Hilman, Stuart McCracken, Petre Cristian, lie, Henry Lazarowicz, Vincent Gnanapragasam

4 September 2021


Summary

Predict Prostate is a Cambridge developed and validated risk communication tool for men with a new prostate cancer diagnosis. It is a CE marked web tool and endorsed by NICE. In this multicentre RCT national study, researchers assessed the impact of this individualised risk communication tool, on patient decision-making after a diagnosis of localised prostate cancer.

Men were randomly assigned to two groups, which received either standard counselling and information, or this in addition to a structured presentation of the Predict Prostate tool. Men who saw the tool were less conflicted and uncertain in their decision-making, and recommended the tool highly. Those who saw the tool had more realistic perception about their long-term survival and the potential impact of treatment upon this.

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International initiative for a curated SDHB variant database improving the diagnosis of hereditary paraganglioma and pheochromocytoma

Publication: BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics

Laurene Ben Aim,  Eamonn R Maher, Alberto Cascon, Anne Barlier, Sophie Giraud, Tonino Ercolino, Pascal Pigny, Roderick J Clifton-Bligh, Delphine Mirebeau-Prunier, Amira Mohamed, Judith Favier, Anne-Paule Gimenez-Roqueplo, Francesca Schiavi, Rodrigo A Toledo, Patricia L Dahia, Mercedes Robledo, Jean Pierre Bayley Nelly Burnichon,

31 August 2021


Summary

A total of 223 distinct SDHB variants from 737 patients were collected worldwide. Using multiple criteria, each variant was first classified according to a 5-tier grouping based on American College of Medical Genetics and NGSnPPGL standardised recommendations and was then manually reviewed by a panel of experts in the field

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