EpiMET
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Epigenetic cross talk between tumour and the innate immune system in colorectal liver metastases
IRAS ID
186729
Contact name
Stuart Robinson
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Normally the immune system is able to seek out and destroy abnormal cells within the body. One of the mechanisms of cancer survival is their ability to modify the behaviour of immune cells surrounding them so that rather than seeking to destroy the cancer they encourage its growth and protect it from the rest of the immune system. The process through which this happens is poorly understood but is likely to be multifactorial.
Exosomes are small membrane bound envelopes actively secreted from cancer cells and taken up by cells surrounding them. They contain a number of molecules, known as micro RNA’s (miRNA), which are able to alter the pattern of gene expression within these cells. At present it is not known what role exosomes play in the behaviour of colorectal liver metastases or how they alter the type of immune cells present in the tumour environment.
By comparing the miRNA expression of exosomes in patients with colorectal liver metastases who have early disease recurrence following surgery with those who do not we hope to identify those miRNA’s that are associated with an aggressive tumour behaviour. In addition we intend to characterise the immune cell populations around those tumours and determine how this is affected by the pattern of exosome miRNA expression.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0417
Date of REC Opinion
3 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion