London - Imperial College London

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Overview

Our Centre

The Imperial Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre is nationally and internationally known for developing cancer technologies and therapies. We have 19 clinical trials currently open. Our strengths and USPs include:

Leading in discovery, translation and application of novel technologies in cancer trials including:

imaging methods particularly PET, MRI and ultrasound in early cancer detection and objective characterisation of therapy response such as novel radiomic approaches (Nat Commun. 2019, Theranostics. 2020, J Nucl Med. 2020, Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020).
metabolomics research providing unique information aiding early trials (Br J Cancer. 2020), and early cancer detection (breath analysis: JAMA Oncol. 2018 and 2019)
improved surgical technologies such as the iKnife and REIMS endoscopy (Sci Transl Med. 2013, Breast Cancer Res. 2017, Surg Endosc. 2017, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020).

New applications of immunotherapy and translation of cancer biology into novel treatments.

pembrolizumab immunotherapy in gestational trophoblastic neoplasia induced 75% complete response rates (Lancet 2017) changing national (NHS approved funding in 2018) and international practice.
immunotherapy with nivolumab is safe and effective therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma across various treatment settings and degrees of liver dysfunction (J Immunother Cancer. 2020).
Translation of CDK7 biology into an inhibitor which in partnership with Carrick has completed Phase I studies and is now in several Phase II trials across multiple cancer types (Cancer Res. 2009, J Med Chem. 2010, Mol Cancer Ther. 2018, Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2020).

Cancer areas: whilst all cancers are treated in our centre, we are international leaders in

gynaecological cancers including ovarian and rare ovarian cancer/germ cell tumours
gestational trophoblastic cancers
breast cancer
haematological malignancies
colorectal

Our Patient Population

We serve a local population of 2.2 million but are also a national and international referral centre and treated just under 1600 new cancer cases in 2019. Of these and our existing cancer patients, 4403 were entered into clinical trials or studies.

Organisations affiliated with Imperial College ECMC:

Our location

London, nearest airport is Heathrow; nearest major train station is Paddington but all airports and train stations in London are well connected to us; Underground stations are White City, Wood Lane and Shephard Bush for Hammersmith campus; Hammersmith for Charing Cross campus and Paddington and Lancaster Gate for St. Mary’s campus.

Contact the Centre Manager:

Naina Patel
naina.patel@imperial.ac.uk
+44 (0) 207 594 2794

Address

Imperial College London

Division of Cancer

1st Floor, ICTEM

Du Cane Road

London W12 0NN

Team Members

Professor Michael Seckl PhD FRCP FMedSci

Centre Co-Lead

Expertise:

Adult

m.seckl@imperial.ac.uk

He is a clinician scientist running the UK’s and world’s largest gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) centre developing new and refining existing therapies for this cancer. He also leads a research team interested in understanding what makes cancer resistant to existing therapies using lung cancer and GTD as model systems. He has led the Imperial ECMC for more than 10 years, published >240 papers (including Lancet, J Clin Oncol, NEJM, Sci Trans Med, EMBO J) run numerous phase I-3 studies and has many leading national and international roles. He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2017.

Professor Eric Aboagye PhD, FMedSci

Centre Co-Lead

Expertise:

Adult

eric.aboagye@imperial.ac.uk

Eric Aboagye is Professor of Cancer Pharmacology & Molecular Imaging and Director of Cancer Imaging Centre. His lab works at the interface of chemistry, mathematics and biology to develop and translate better ways of visualising metabolic and receptor-signalling properties of cancers in pre-clinical models and patients, using positron emission tomography and other imaging techniques. His team is also studying how tumour architecture influences patient outcome by developing and applying radiogenomics approaches. His research has directly led to discovery/translation of five new cancer diagnostics into human application and is also beginning to influence patient stratification for therapy. Professor Aboagye was recipient of the 2009 Sir Mackenzie Davidson Medal and was elected Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010.

Naina Patel

Centre Business Lead

naina.patel@imperial.ac.uk

Ms Naina Patel has over 25 experience in cancer research. She manages Imperial Cancer Biomarker Resource Centre that helps to coordinate and perform translational work for early phase clinical cancer trials and studies. Her team provides biobanking, genomic, histology and biostatistical analyses for ECMC supported projects.

Dr Laura Kenny

Director of the Early Phase Cancer Clinical Trials Unit

Expertise:

Adult

l.kenny@imperial.ac.uk

Dr Laura Kenny has a particular interest in predictive biomarkers for novel therapeutic agents, and has been Chief Investigator for several first in man studies of molecular probes for use in molecular imaging by positron emission tomography.

The Early Phase Cancer Trials unit offers trials in across all solid tumour types. The Clinical Research Facility in Imperial has state of the art facilities for Phase 1/11 trials, and has a portfolio of research council/pharmaceutical sponsored/academic studies.

Kelly Gleason

PPIE (Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) Lead

Ms Kelly Gleason is the CRUK Nurse at Imperial College London. She manages the translational research team working in our hospitals, provides education and training for the research delivery teams, and coordinates the Imperial Public Involvement Group for Cancer and public involvement activities in Surgery & Cancer at Imperial College London.

Our Imperial Science Cafés, meets regularly as part of our patient public involvement/engagement work, where researchers and public/patients come together and discuss new and ongoing research projects and treatments, in open and friendly environment which has been proved to be popular and beneficial for both public and researchers in understanding and gaining knowledge in patient’s journey.

Operational Team

Kelly Gleason

Lead Research Nurse

k.gleason@imperial.ac.uk

+44 (0) 783 716 7298

Andrea Rockall

Lead Radiologist

a.rockall@imperial.ac.uk

+44 (0) 207 594 2807

Vicky Tsipouri

Lead Data Manager

v.tsipouri@imperial.ac.uk

+44 (0) 20 7594 2165

Kikkeri Naresh

Lead Pathologist

k.naresh@imperial.ac.uk

+44 (0) 203 313 3969

Eric Aboagye

Lead PK Specialist

eric.aboagye@imperial.ac.uk

+44 (0) 203 313 3759

Victoria Latham

Lead Pharmacist Clinical Trials

victoria.latham@imperial.nhs.uk

+44 (0) 203 313 34350

Robert Brown

Lead Laboratory Scientist

b.brown@imperial.ac.uk

+44 (0) 207 594 1804

Geraldine Thomas

Biobank Contact

geraldine.thomas@imperial.ac.uk

+44 (0) 203 311 7342

Adult Expertise

Treatment Modalities

Immunotherapy

Small Molecules

Surgery

Facilities/Translational Research

Radiopharmacy
On-site pharmacy
Biobanking facilities
Dedicated research staff
Snap freezing facilities
On-site ITU (intensive treatment unit)
On-site central lab
Clinical Research Facility
Imperial Cancer Trials Clinical Unit

Cancer Types

Gynaecological cancers- McNeish, Ghaem-Maghami, Fotopoulou, Brown, Krell, (Nat Genet. 2018; Lancet 2019, 2018; Lancet Oncol. 2020, 2017; NEJM. 2012).
Gestational trophoblastic disease -Seckl (Lancet 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 20017; J Clin Oncol 2013, 2015, Annals Oncol. 2013, 2019).
Breast- Coombes, Kenny, Ali, Leff, Magnani, Flanagan, (BMJ 2000; Lancet 2011; NEJM 2004; Nat Med. 2018; Clin Cancer Res 2019; Nat Commun. 2018, 2019; Mol Cancer Ther. 2018).
Haematology- Apperley, Karadimitris, Milojkovic (Lancet 2015; Lancet Oncol. 2004, 2007; NEJM 2002, 2013).
Colorectal-Kinross, Valeri, Darzi, Takats (Lancet 2011; Nature 2012; Science 2018; Sci Transl Med. 2013).
With growing strength in Hepatobiliary (Sharma, Pinato and Habib), prostate (Ahmed, Bevan), Brain (Williams), Lung (Seckl, Pardo), Pancreatic (Wasan) and Neuroendocrine cancer (Sharma).

Drugs/Treatment Modalities

Combination Therapies
Technologies

Radiotherapy

We have specific research expertise in Molecularly Targted Radiotherapy.

Imperial College/NHS Trust is an ENETS centre actively pursuing molecularly targeted radiotherapy for neuroendocrine tumour patients. Research in this area relates to optimising imaging and theranostic approaches, including better use of current staging approaches and development of novel PET imaging agents (Sharma et al., Radiother Oncol. 2019; Mapelli et al., Oncogene 2015; Dubash et al., J Nucl Med. 2016) for upfront of treating patients who present with ‘PET hot’ lesionsexample prior to treatment with lutathera.

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)

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

2 weeks turnaround time (TAT) available for selected genes in all lung cancer, all colorectal cancer, all melanoma, all ovarian cancer, some cholangiocarcinomas, and in some of the other cancers as per NICE guidelines. In selected cases where funding permits whole exome sequencing is now being done with a 2-3 week TAT.

Case Study

Case Studies

[18F]-Fluciclatide PET

Fluciclatide is an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid peptide with high affinity for αvβ3/αvβ5 integrin, which can be radiolabeled for PET imaging of angiogenesis. We showed that [18F]-Fluciclatide PET imaging can be conducted with high reproducibility in several tumour types including breast and colorectal cancer. Furthermore, we showed that in platinum-resistant/refractory ovarian cancer receiving combination therapy followed by maintenance pazopanib, [18F]Fluciclatide-PET uptake parameters can predict clinical outcome with pazopanib therapy indicating an anti-angiogenic response.

The ECMC supported the test and re-test studies of this imaging agent across multiple ECMCs (Kings, Bart’s, Oxford and UCL) and international sites with GE Healthcare as the industrial sponsor.

(Sharma R, et al., Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020 doi: 10.1007/s00259-019-04532-z. Epub 2019 Nov 21. PMID: 31754793; Sharma R, et al., J Nucl Med. 2015 doi: 10.2967/jnumed.115.158253. Epub 2015 Sep 17, PMID: 26383153).

iKnife

REI-EXCISE, a feasibility study, aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of rapid ionisation mass spectroscopy using an iKnife device. REI-EXCISE trial has successfully recruited 158 patients and it is now in the close out phase, with ongoing data analysis. This study may help to reduce positive margins and improve the way breast conserving surgery is performed.

ECMC supported the early development of this technology on patient samples and then the early trials across both Imperial and the RMH ECMC sites.

(St John ER, et al., Breast Cancer Res. 2017 May 23;19(1):59. doi: 10.1186/s13058-017-0845-2. PMID: 28535818; Balog J, et al., Sci Transl Med. 2013 Jul 17;5(194):194ra93. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005623. PMID: 23863833).

London - Imperial College London

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Operational Team