Predictive immune signatures of clinical outcome in lung cancer (v1.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Is there an immune signature predictive of clinical outcome after surgery in lung cancer?
IRAS ID
256077
Contact name
Zsuzsanna Tabi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University, Research and Innovation Services
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
This project will explore whether the presence of macrophages in the tumour tissue of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is predictive of their long-term survival; specifically, whether there is a difference between the number of tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) in the cancer tissue of those patients who remain disease-free, compared to those who relapse following surgery. Although early-stage NSCLC can potentially be cured with surgery, some patients relapse following this treatment. Therefore, there is a need to identify patients whose cancer is unlikely to respond to surgery, in order to provide an alternative intervention earlier. Additionally, some patients also receive radiotherapy post-surgery, which may reduce their chance of relapse.
We expect that patients with tumours that have a higher proportion of cancer-promoting macrophages are more likely to relapse following standard treatments (surgery, with or without radiotherapy). We plan to compare the type, number, and location of TAMs in the tissue of 200 early-stage NSCLC patients. Out of these 200, 100 will have received surgery alone, whilst the remainder will have received radiotherapy following their surgery. Furthermore, half of the individuals within these groups will have relapsed within 5 years of treatment, whilst the others will have remained disease-free during this time.
All experiments will be laboratory based, as this study is not a clinical trial, and will be carried out either in the NHS Department of Pathology or an academic laboratory in the Tenovus Building, at the University Hospital Wales. Experiments will be performed on preserved tumour samples already collected from NSCLC patients during surgery, as part of their diagnosis and/or treatment. The study will continue until the target number of samples have been collected and analysed.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/YH/0085
Date of REC Opinion
7 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion