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• cancer/oncology
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• Medicine

• Oncology

My work in cancer clinical trials extends from First-in-Human phase I trials to phase III trials. In anti-cancer drug development, I work with colleagues across CCRCB and with collaborators elsewhere in academia and industry. I am leading phase I trials on the first 2 oncology drugs developed in N. Ireland, and on other FIH phase I trials with Cancer Research UK, and also co-lead on the adaptive phase III personalised medicine FOCUS4 trial. I work with colleagues on the basic, translational and clinical science of colorectal and small bowel cancer.

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors is changing the outcomes for many people with advanced cancer, including curing some with stage IV disease. However, there is an urgent need to develop better predictive markers (beyond PD-L1 immunohistochemistry) which are validated across multiple tumour types of those likely to respond these agents, and to exclude their use (given their often significant toxicities) in those who are very unlikely to derive benefit. We are developing a proof of concept trial of immune-oncology drugs linked to biomarker enrichment across patients with multiple tumour types, particularly gastro-intestinal adenocarcinomas. This 'tissue agnostic' trial will depend on a biomarker assessment of mutational burden, but will also explore gene expression profiling and immunophenotyping. The student will gain experience in multiple molecular techniques, biomarkers, translational research and early phase drug trials.