Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine

Research leads/directors: Professor Jean Abraham, Professor James Brenton, Professor Grant Stewart, Dr Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar, Dr Sarah Burge

We aim to transform the way the world treats cancer to accelerate cures.

The Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine brings together different types of information about each patient’s cancer, such as blood test results, biopsy results, scans and genetic information. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help analyse this information and understand how a patient is responding to treatment.

This can help clinicians make better-informed decisions and choose treatment that is more closely matched to each patient.

A lot of information is already collected during a patient’s care, but it is not always clear which information is most useful at different stages of treatment. By bringing this information together in one place, we aim to make precision cancer medicine part of routine care for every patient.

The Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine will be located in the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital and will help clinicians to:

• predict how well treatment before surgery is working.
• decide whether a patient may benefit from a different treatment or a clinical trial.
• understand a patient’s risk of cancer returning.
• understand whether family members may have a higher risk of developing the same cancer in the future.

Current clinical trials and studies on integrated cancer medicine

We are currently running clinical studies and trials in five main cancer areas: blood, breast, ovarian, kidney and pancreatic cancer.

• A new UK trial called RAdICAL focuses on first-line treatment for Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. It is the first trial to use circulating tumour DNA — tiny fragments of cancer DNA found in the blood — to help understand a patient’s level of risk and guide treatment decisions from the start of the trial. All molecular testing will be carried out in Cambridge by the Cancer Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory. The test was developed during the DIRECT trial, and results will be available within three weeks. The DIRECT trial (opens in a new tab) focused on patients with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma. It looked at patients who do not respond well to current treatment and helped identify different types of this cancer, as well as how they respond to different treatments.
• In the PARTNER trial, patients with early-stage breast cancer who had inherited changes in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes received chemotherapy followed by a targeted cancer drug before surgery. All patients in the trial survived for at least three years after surgery — an important milestone in their care.
• The OV04/06 (opens in a new tab) study in ovarian cancer is looking at how patients respond to treatment and why some cancers become resistant to chemotherapy. This is important because survival rates for ovarian cancer remain low, particularly when the cancer comes back or does not respond to treatment.
• The ATRiUM clinical trial is mainly for patients with pancreatic cancer. It aims to identify new treatment combinations and find markers that show whether a patient is likely to respond well to new treatments.
• The WIRE clinical trial offers people with kidney cancer access to new drug treatments during the month between diagnosis and surgery. The trial is run in partnership with AstraZeneca and is open in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford.

Professor James Brenton, Institute co-lead and a Senior Group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute said: "Bringing together complex data with machine learning techniques means clinicians will be able to make better decisions for patients, not just in Cambridge but by sharing the model with other hospitals, across the UK. These studies would not be possible without the support and input of our patient group who are critical collaborators in this work.”

The women helping to change the story of ovarian cancer

The Women’s Cancers Patient and Public Involvement Group, at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre, provides advice and input into research and clinical trials to improve outcomes for ovarian cancer patients. The women meet virtually several times a month, offering each other support during a life-changing time. Their unique experiences are helping to frame and refine research questions, as well as improve service delivery.

The group are at the centre of pioneering research in Cambridge that’s changing the outcome of ovarian cancer. Although many of the group were diagnosed with ovarian cancer, their cancers, and the ovarian cancers of other women, are in many ways quite different – and this could modify how they respond to treatment.

Listen to this Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre podcast episode (opens in a new tab) to hear members of the Women’s Cancers Patient and Public Involvement Group discuss how they are involved in research, why they think involvement is so important, and what it means to them to be a part of the group.

Read the latest updates from the group (opens in a new tab) on the University of Cambridge website.

Find out more on the Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine website (opens in a new tab).