The Integrated Cancer Medicine: Research in Focus series highlights the ground-breaking science of the members of the Integrated Cancer Medicine Programme (ICM) at the University of Cambridge, UK. The ICM vision is to revolutionise the patient treatment pathway by utilising information from multiple data streams (imaging, radiogenomics, circulating tumour DNA, and others). Computational advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are not only employed in the capture of this data but also in its integration. This gives us a powerful tool to assess a patient’s response to treatment, enabling clinicians to tailor therapy according to a patient’s own individual configuration and also to that of their specific disease. In this series, we are proud to showcase the amazing progress being made in ICM towards personalising treatment for cancer patients.

Integrated Cancer Medicine: Research in Focus

Ellie Wolmark introduces the Integrated Cancer Medicine: Research in Focus series. She gives a summary of the series which showcases the diverse research from across the Integrated Cancer Medicine Programme at the CRUK Cambridge Centre, including the cutting-edge techniques that are being developed, such as the use of novel artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches in cancer research, and how the resulting data streams will be integrated and then finally translated into the clinic in order to tailor treatment for each individual cancer patient.

Ellie is Communications Manager for Integrated Cancer Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK and the CRUK Cambridge Centre, UK.

Integrated Cancer Medicine: Research in Focus - Introduction

Dr Daniel Hodson talks about the DIRECT clinical trial for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). DIRECT focuses on both stratifying the different sub-types of DLBCL in order to provide personalised treatment for patients and on prioritising patients who do not respond well to current standard of care in order to introduce alternative treatments to their care plan.

Daniel is a Principal Investigator and Honorary Consultant at the Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, UK and is Chief Investigator for the DIRECT clinical trial.

The DIRECT clinical trial for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Professor Grant Stewart and Professor Evis Sala discuss the WIRE clinical trial for kidney cancer. WIRE evaluates the effectiveness of giving a short course of drug treatment to patients in the one month “window of opportunity” between diagnosis and surgery. Patients on the WIRE trial also undergo a suite of new imaging techniques that have been brought together for the first time globally in this clinical trial.

Grant is Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Cambridge, UK, co-leader of the CRUK Cambridge Centre's Urological Malignancies Programme, co-leader of the Integrated Cancer Medicine Programme, and Chief Investigator for the WIRE trial.

Evis is Professor of Oncological Imaging at the University of Cambridge, UK, co-leader of the CRUK Cambridge Centre’s Advanced Cancer Imaging Programme, and co-leader of the Integrated Cancer Medicine Programme.

The WIRE clinical trial for kidney cancer

Professor James Brenton, Dr Ramona Woitek and Dr Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar discuss integrated radiogenomics for virtual biopsy and treatment monitoring in ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is often a very complex disease that varies between patients and generally presents at a very advanced stage. This makes standard of care treatment difficult to establish as each patient presents so differently. Integrating radiogenomics data with information from other data streams, collected as standard of care, via machine learning can help understand whether a tumour will respond to treatment and leads to personalised treatment plans for each patient.

James is Professor of Ovarian Cancer Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK, Academic Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology (Ovarian) at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, co-leader of the CRUK Cambridge Centre’s Ovarian Cancer Programme, and co-leader of the Integrated Cancer Medicine Programme.

Ramona is a Senior Research Associate and Honorary Consultant Radiologist at the Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge, UK.

Mireia is Lecturer in Integrated Cancer Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Integrated radiogenomics for virtual biopsy and treatment monitoring in ovarian cancer

Professor Duncan Jodrell talks about the ATRiUM clinical trial for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer often presents in an advanced stage and tends to be fairly resistant to standard of care treatments. The ATRiUM trial aims to identify a new combination strategy for treating patients with pancreatic cancer and to determine new predictive biomarkers to recognise the sub-set of patients who are mostly likely to respond to treatment.

Duncan is Professor of Cancer Therapeutics at the University of Cambridge, UK, Director of the Cambridge Cancer Trials Centre (CCTC), Lead for the Cambridge Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC), Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Chief Investigator for the ATRiUM trial.

The ATRiUM clinical trial for pancreatic cancer

Can we use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict where a brain tumour might recur at the point of first diagnosis in order to pre-emptively treat it to stop recurrence?
 
Dr Francesca Cozzi (a PhD student at the University of Cambridge) and Dr Curtis Holliman (Associate Professor in the Mathematics Department at The Catholic University of America, USA) believe this will eventually be possible.
 
In this exciting conversation they talk about their collaboration to find a mechanism to mathematically model the progression of glioblastoma. They highlight why it is important to achieve this in an explainable way using AI, to keep the process of decision making transparent and interpretable to self-validate the models they develop.

Using AI to mathematically model the progression of glioblastoma

The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre unites over 1,000 world-leading biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, clinicians, nurses and allied healthcare professionals from across Cambridge, UK to tackle cancer from every angle.

Our mission is to end death and disease caused by cancer through research, treatment and education. We are detecting cancer at its earliest stage and are developing personalised treatments for every patient through facilitating new collaborations and driving the translation of new scientific discoveries into clinical applications to improve patient care. By working together across a range of different disciplines, our members are breaking down the barriers between the laboratory and the clinic, enabling patients to benefit from the latest innovations in cancer science.