Supervisor View Full Details

• cancer/oncology

• Medicine
• Surgery

• Immunology
• Oncology

4 themes: 1. Studies on visceral obesity and liver and the relationship to cancer in humans. Platforms included immunology, and inflammation/metabolism
2. Studies on inflammation to cancer pathways, in particular Barrett's oesophagus to oesophageal adenocarcinoma, and inflammatory bowel disease to colorectal adenocarcinoma.
3. Studies on prediciton of response and resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy in gastrointestinal cancer.
4. Leading International Clinical Trial: Neo-AEGIS, comparing preoperative chemotherapy and chemoradiation prior to resection of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Translational studies focusing on gene arrays, miRNA, and PET imaging as predictors of response.
5. The impact of major surgery on immune cells and the inflammatory response (oesophageal and lung cancer)
6. Studies (neuroendocrine, functional MRI) of gut-brain interaction underlying weight loss and anorexia after major cancer surgey

I am PI on an international randomised clinical trial (RCT) -Neo-AEGIS- that compares peri-operative chemotherapy with preoperative combination chemoradiation It will run to 2019 at least and recruit approximately 200 patients in Ireland, 590 total. There are many opportunities for translational research within an RCT, with de facto established randomised experimental and control arms with identical cancer stage, and for this trial they include gene/micro RNA assessment of pre-treatment biopsies to predict response, and the assessment of tumour microenvironment, in particular the phenotype and activation status of T cells and macrophages (see Immunoscore). For this study, pre-treatment biopsies and resected tumour post treatment will be analsyed and compared, and changes from pre- to post-, differences between chemoradiation and chemotherapy alone, and differences between responders and non-responders analysed. Three post-docs in the group focused on Immunology will help supervise the work, with input also from the senior scientist (Dr O'Sullivan) who has expertise on inflammation and the tumour environment.