Oxford

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Overview

Our Centre

Individualising patient care is the goal of the Oxford ECMC. This means applying fundamental scientific discoveries in cancer biology to the development of novel cancer therapies and prognostic / diagnostic biomarkers. The Centre focuses on Early Phase trials, and works closely with a number of national and international collaborators from academia and industry.

The Centre is hosted by the University of Oxford, ranked top in the world for medicine, and forms part of its Medical Sciences Division, one of the largest biomedical research centres in Europe. The Centre also benefits from being able to work in partnership with a world-leading centre dedicated to radiation oncology and biology.

The Centre has expertise in immunology, angiogenesis and molecular pathology, and also has facilities for conducting imaging, proteomics, microarray and radioisotope studies.

The specific aims of the Oxford ECMC are to:

Accelerate the development of new cancer treatments, with a specific focus on angiogenesis, DNA damage processing, and immunotherapy
Deliver programmes of concurrent clinical and biomarker research
Stratify patients to ensure that radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and anti-angiogenic treatments are offered to patients in whom these therapies are most likely to work

Our patient population

An audit in 2018/2019 revealed we had around 200 phase I referrals over 12 months of which around 50% entered early phase trials.

Organisations affiliated with the Oxford ECMC:

Our location

Oxfordshire – we have both trains and planes (Oxford airport and 60 min from Heathrow)

Contact the Centre Manager:

Kathryn Room

kathryn.room@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Address

Oxford ECMC
Department of Oncology
Old Road Campus Research Building
Roosevelt Drive
Oxford
OX3 7DQ

Team Members

Prof. Eileen Parkes

Centre Lead

eileen.parkes@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Professor Eileen Parkes completed her medical oncology training at Queens University Belfast and was awarded her PhD in 2016 on the interface between DNA repair and immune responses in the Kennedy lab, identifying constitutive activation of innate immune pathways in BRCA-deficient cancers. She was awarded the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Young Investigator Award in 2018 as well as a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Fellowship that year. She joined the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals as a medical oncology consultant in 2019. She has been instrumental in advancing STING agonists in early phase trials and leads early phase trials focusing on innate immune engagers. Integration of bench science and clinical impact is at the heart of Eileen’s lab, which studies tumour microenvironment in chromosomally unstable cancers, such as oesophageal cancer, to identify novel therapeutic targets. As ECMC lead Professor Parkes is passionate about improving patient access to early phase trials and the rapid translation of cutting edge discoveries to clinical investigation to improve treatment options for people with cancer.

Kathryn Room

Operations Lead

kathryn.room@oncology.ox.ac.uk

As the Operations Lead, Kathryn puts into action the strategic infrastructure and training programmes vital to delivering the Centre’s vision. As the Centre Manager, Kathryn is also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Centre.

Operational Team

Andrew Roberts

QA Administrator

ECMC@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Neera Maroo

Sample & Database Manager

ECMC@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Molly Browne

Immunohistopathology & Histology Technician

ECMC@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Leticia Campo

Research Assistant

ECMC@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Alistair Easton

Senior Clinical Researcher

ECMC@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Adult Expertise

Treatment Modalities

Immunotherapy

Oncolytic viruses

Small Molecules

Radiotherapy

Facilities/Translational Research

CQC registered oncology trials unit
Dedicated 24 hour stay facilities (including weekends)
Radiopharmacy
On-site pharmacy
PK testing facility
Biobanking facilities
Dedicated research staff
Snap freezing facilities i.e. liquid nitrogen
On-site ITU (intensive treatment unit)
On-site central lab

Cancer Types

We have expertise in both solid tumours and haematological malignancies.

All comers, Brain, Breast, CRC, Lung, Lymphoma, Leukaemias, Melanoma, Oesophagus, Gynaecological, Urological, Pancreas

Drug/Treatment Modalities

Advanced cellular therapies
Combination therapies

Radiotherapy

We have regular access to photon radiotherapy. We have research expertise in the following:

Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT)
4-Dimensional Radiotherapy (4DRT)
Stereotactic Radiotherapy (SBRT/SABRT)

Molecular Diagnostic Testing

We have the following available on a routine basis to our patients.

Single gene testing
Disease specific NGS panel testing (next generation sequencing)
Large NGS panel testing
WGS (whole genome sequencing)

This is available for tumours and for ctDNA (circulating tumour DNA)

If it is not standard of care (i.e. in the typing of a newly diagnosed lung cancer for example) Phase I patients have access to Foundation One testing. The turn around time is 6 weeks.

Case Study

Case Studies

Replimmune

With Replimune, a biotech based in Oxford and Boston, we have evaluated a novel oncolytic viruses in the clinic. The first agent, RP1, has shown promising activity in cutaneous squamous cell cancers (CSCC) and in PD-1 refractory/resistant melanoma. And we have established biological proof of concept (T cell infiltration in injected and non-injected lesions), and RP1 is now being evaluated in a randomized phase 3 trial with cemiplimab (CSCC) and a registration phase 2 cohort with nivolumab (melanoma). Subsequent generations of this oncolytic technology are now in the clinic, with evidence of activity in uveal melanoma and gastrointestinal cancers. Oxford ECMC had global first patients in studies of the first two generations of these agents and leads recruitment for both phase one and two studies.

Nuc-7738

NUC-7738 is a ProTide transformation of the herbal medicine and nucleoside analogue cordycepin. It has a unique mode of action with potent anti-cancer activity in preclinical studies. This ProTide releases the active anti-cancer metabolite of cordycepin directly into cells and bypasses their cellular resistance mechanisms of transport, activation and breakdown. As there were still questions around the MOA of this IMP, Dr Blagden’s lab used high throughput sequencing and gene-trap technology to characterize the agent and to support clinical positioning. Markers defined from this work have been incorporated into the PD endpoints of the study and a multiplex IHC assay has been developed to incorporate them for use in patient tissue. Sarah Blagden is chief Investigator of the corresponding Phase I NuTide:701 study and the global first patient was dosed in Oxford in June 2019. First study findings were presented in ESMO 2020.

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Operational Team