Goals

Goals and Objectives

  • Contribute to the development of novel treatments across the range of adult cancers, by providing an optimal infrastructure for their clinical testing. Appropriate support for associated laboratory studies will be included, and this will provide important information as to which patients will be most likely to benefit from these new agents.
  • We would wish to be judged as successful or otherwise on the strength of the following criteria.
  • Maintain of average of between 150 and 200 patients per year in Phase I trials.
  • Maintain of average of 100 tumour biopsies for PD studies per year.
  • Successful evaluation of 100% of Cancer Research UK compounds entering the ECMC, with demonstration that appropriate candidates are correctly chosen to go forward for further (Phase II) trials.
 

Centre expertise

  • We aim to demonstrate that expert application of molecular pharmacodynamics, diagnostics (including DNA sequencing) and imaging (MRI and PET) should result in the successful evaluation of molecular targeted agents and appropriate patient selection. We have a particular interest in the PI3/AKT pathway as well as those targets such as HSP90 which affect multiple pathways, and would aim to provide particular expertise in these areas.
  • We have a wide network of external/international contacts, and through these we aim to bring into the UK a range of novel agents which may not otherwise have been tested here, and which could then become available for Phase I studies to other ECMC centres.
  • We will work to ensure that wherever possible promising agents with which we have worked in Phase I trials will become available for further multicentre Phase II studies in the wider ECMC network.
  • We will provide increasing training opportunities within our ECMC for medical, nursing and support staff, and would prioritise individuals whose acquired expertise will then benefit the wider ECMC network.