ICHOR Investigation of Circulating Haematological Biomarkers in Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
ICHOR: Investigation of Circulating Haematological Biomarkers in Cancer
IRAS ID
234011
Contact name
Richard Turkington
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
QUB Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Oesophageal cancer is the 6th most common cause of cancer-related death, while gastric cancer is the tenth most common cause of cancer-related death, in the United Kingdom. Despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment, only 15% of patients with oesophageal cancer and 19% of patients with gastric cancer survive their disease for more than 5 years.
The presentation and clinical course of oesophago-gastric adenocarcinoma presents a number of challenges, including late presentation and difficulty obtaining invasive tumour tissue samples. DNA fragments found in blood, known as cell-free DNA (cfDNA) are raised in cancer patients due to the presence of tumour-specific cfDNA, also known as circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). ctDNA has emerged as a potential tool to assess the amount of cancer present before treatment, how well the treatment is working and to detect low levels of cancer after treatment so that if the cancer comes back it can be treated quickly. It may also reduce the need for invasive tissue tumour sampling, which may only represent part of the tumour and not be reflect the variety of tumour cells present.
In our study, a ctDNA signature that represents response to chemotherapy treatment, will be designed and applied to routine blood samples. This study will only be performed at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre to examine the feasibility of isolating ctDNA, exosomes and metabolomics from whole blood and plasma samples of 50 patients undergoing chemotherapy for oesophago-gastric cancer and during follow-up. We will measure markers in the blood to determine their ability to predict the best treatment for patients. This study does not involve any alteration to the institutional standard of care for assessment, treatment and follow up of all patients.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 4
REC reference
18/WS/0075
Date of REC Opinion
9 May 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion