The Regulatory Chromatin Landscape in Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Regulatory Chromatin Landscape Driving the Development, Progression and Metastasis of Upper Gastrointestinal Adenocarcinoma
IRAS ID
240200
Contact name
Yeng Ang
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Unniversity of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Oesophageal and gastric cancer have poor prognoses which are partially due to diagnosis at a late stage and limited advance in targeted and personalised therapies. Overall one year survival in England was 42.3% and five year survival 14.3% following diagnosis of oesophago-gastric cancer in 2012. In the UK the majority of tumours are of the adenocarcinoma type.
Oesophageal, oesophago-gastric and gastric adenocarcinoma are clinically similar and treated with similar regimens. The development of cancer from normal cells can occur after changes to genes and the ways their instructions are read to make proteins for their cells. The genes themselves can be faulty but in recent years we have begun to realise the importance of the way that they are packaged within the cell can be of great importance when normal cells turn into cancer cells. The way the genes and their packaging are organised can also have influence on the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body. This study aims to further understand how genes and their packaging differs in normal cells, Barrett’s oesophagus cells (precancerous cells) and adenocarcinoma cells from the oesophagus, stomach and metastases.
Patient biopsies of oesophagus, stomach and liver metastasis cells will be taken across three NHS sites around Greater Manchester and genetic testing and data analysis will be performed at the University of Manchester. Biopsies of the oesophagus and stomach will be taken during endoscopy, a camera test which looks at the gut and forms part of the usual care for patients. Liver metastasis biopsy uses a needle introduced under local anaesthetic and ultrasound guidance. We will uncover the changes that occur to allow cancer and metastasis to unfold in this disease. By characterising the gene regulators we identify, we aim to discover disease targets and lead to more personalised therapies for patients.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0715
Date of REC Opinion
5 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion