TriStar ovarian cancer project (version 1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Determination of genetic, transcriptomic and proteomic pharmacological targets for the treatment of ovarian cancer
IRAS ID
214527
Contact name
Nicolas M Orsi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
10 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Ovarian cancer is the second commonest gynaecological malignancy in the developed world yet carries the greatest mortality rate, accounting for 4,128 deaths per year in 2014 in the UK alone. In turn, this is attributable to the fact that early stages (I/II) present a diagnostic challenge due to their non-specific symptoms. As a result, disease is rarely diagnosed until it spreads and presents at more advanced stages (III/IV), when therapeutic intervention is invariably less effective. Surgery is the mainstay of therapy, with case-specific regimens of neo-/adjuvant chemotherapy, but cure is seldom achieved, calling for a need to develop more effective targeted therapies. A better understanding of the genetic blueprint defects and the pathways leading to abnormal protein expression are key to this effort, as part of both academic and pharmaceutical corporate research programmes aimed at developing new drugs. This project addresses both of these strategies by providing surplus archival ovarian cancer tissue samples with anonymised case-specific demographic annotations to a commercial partner who is funding the project, TriStar. In turn, TriStar will distribute this material to pharmaceutical companies actively engaged in ovarian cancer drug development programmes, whilst returning a replica of all the material collected and processed to Leeds, where it will be made available for academic research programmes. For example, where TriStar will create two tissue microarrays (TMAs), one of these will be returned to Leeds. In parallel These research endeavours will involve an array of research techniques, including genetic, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
18/WA/0324
Date of REC Opinion
24 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion