Exploring the landscape of injury and repair in the human oesophagus
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Characterising the genomic and phenotypic changes that define injury and repair in the context of early carcinogenesis in the human oesophagus.
IRAS ID
293952
Contact name
Ayesha Noorani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Wellcome Sanger Institute
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Tissue injury activates a number of cellular responses to initiate wound healing, resulting in the formation of new tissue within a short span of time and in a controlled fashion. In contrast, cancer results when a tissue mass forms in an unregulated process. Understanding the molecular mechanisms behind appropriate wound healing enables us to delineate how this process goes askew in the context of cancer. Our goal is to delineate the mechanisms defining appropriate oesophageal injury and repair, and to use this information to understand how these rules are dysregulated and result in cancer formation. Our efforts to date have been limited as studies have been based on mouse models, and studying non-cancerous tissue samples. Whilst mouse studies have been informative, there are limitations due to the anatomical and physiological differences between mice and humans. The use of non-cancerous tissue has also been challenging, as the changes we are looking for are subtle and below the sensitivity threshold of traditional sequencing efforts.
In this study, we wish to recruit adult patients undergoing endoluminal vacuum therapy (EVT) for the treatment of perforations to the oesophagus in order to collect the discarded EVT sponge, biopsies from endoscopies, resected surgical specimens and additional blood samples. We will request consent for access to archived tissue samples from any previous related surgery and some associated clinical metadata. The samples and associated clinical metadata will then be pseudonymised and sent to the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Once samples are received at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, they will undergo a number of procedures including but not limited to genome sequencing, this will enable us gain a better understanding of the wound healing process, specifically how it can sometimes go wrong and lead to the development of cancer.
REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NW/0208
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion