London - King's Health Partners

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Overview

Our Centre

King’s Health Partners ECMC focuses particularly on new Molecular and Cellular cancer immunotherapies, building on recent translation of agents discovered in King’s laboratories. Examples, both leading to foundation of spin-out companies (Epsilogen, Leucid), include:

A first-in-class IgE antibody, which demonstrated the safety of this highly novel therapeutic approach;
CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumours, manufactured on site. Multiple cell and other advanced therapies are progressing in our portfolio, either academic studies or collaborations with industry partners. Our high standards of research governance, and close links with world-class surgical oncology teams, especially for melanoma and thoracic malignancies, continue to provide essential expertise and capacity in cell therapies requiring tissue harvest.

The breadth and volume of activity in early phase trials of novel systemic therapies have increased rapidly since our very first trial in 2007. Specific interests include thoracic, GI, gynae and skin cancers, and there are close links with other tumour-specific clinics in our Cancer Centre. We deliver ECMC trials in the NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at Guy’s Hospital, with high quality standards and we are the only MHRA accredited NHS-managed CRF in London, and one of only two such units in England. Governance is further strengthened by senior engagement of all stakeholders in our ECMC Board.

Organisations affiliated with KHP ECMC:

King's Health Partners (KHP) Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) combines research activity within King’s College London with clinical expertise in the Comprehensive Cancer Centre based at the College’s two partner NHS Foundation Trusts, Guy’s & St Thomas’, and King’s College Hospital.

Our location

We are situated in Central South East London, close to London Bridge mainline station and tube station, connections to Borough, Southwark and Bermondsey. The nearest airport is City Airport and Gatwick airport has direct trains to and from London Bridge station.

Contact the Centre Manager:

Ambi Williams
ambi.williams@kcl.ac.uk
+44 (0) 207 188 0154

Address

Bermondsey Wing
Guy's Hospital
Great Maze Pond
London SE1 9RT

Team Members

Professor James Spicer

Centre Lead

Expertise:

Adult

james.spicer@kcl.ac.uk

James Spicer is Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine in the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Studies of King’s College London, and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals.

He has a PhD in cancer biology, and a degree in biochemistry from the University of Oxford. Prof Spicer’s interests include clinical drug development and thoracic oncology.

He has established and runs a Phase 1 programme in solid tumour oncology at Guy’s Hospital, where the portfolio of recruiting trials includes novel immunotherapies discovered and developed at King’s. There are now 4 principle investigators in the Unit. He is lead for the Immunotherapy Theme of the national ECMC Network, and chair of the UK Paediatric ECMC national network.

Professor Debashis Sarker

Centre Co-Lead

Expertise:

Adult

debashis.sarker@kcl.ac.uk

Debashis Sarker is Reader in Experimental Oncology in the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences at King's College London and Consultant Medical Oncologist at Guy's, St Thomas' and King's College Hospitals. His main research interests are in first-in-human development of novel molecularly targeted agents, molecular and cellular immunotherapies and is the co-lead of King’s Health Partners Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. He specialises in management of liver, pancreatic and neuroendocrine cancers with a particular focus in developmental therapeutics and genomics. He also serves as the clinical co-lead at NHSE South East Genomic Medicine Service and Laboratory Hub and is the Deputy Director of NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas Clinical Research Facility.

Ambi Williams

Centre Business Lead

ambi.williams@kcl.ac.uk

Ambi Williams is the Research Manager for King’s Health Partners (KHP). As part of her responsibility as the ECMC Centre Manager, she is the Centre Business Lead, Relationship Manager and also part of the ECMC Network Intelligence Data Advisory Group. Ambi has several years of experience of working across the Government, public and private sectors.

Ambi Williams

PPIE (Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) Lead

ambi.williams@kcl.ac.uk

Ambi Williams leads the South East London Consumer Research Panel (SELCRP) who support our researchers with their studies, providing advice on patient information sheets, protocols, and research proposals. Panel members (lay, patient representatives, and active researchers) provide rapid review and feedback to research teams on comprehensibility, terminology used, and patient acceptability of aspects of trial design, and also review draft patient information materials prior to ethics submission. In addition to this, Ambi is also part of the ECMC Network PPI Group.

Scientific & Operational Team

Dr Debashis Sarker

Clinical Senior Lecturer

debashis.sarker@kcl.ac.uk

Professor Sophia Karagiannis

Senior Lecturer in Translational Cancer Immunology

sophia.karagiannis@kcl.ac.uk

Professor Arnie Purushotham

Surgical Lead

arnie.purushotham@kcl.ac.uk

Dr James Arnold

Reader and Head of Tumour Immunology Group

james.arnold@kcl.ac.uk

Dr Richard Dillon

Clinical Senior Lecturer in Cancer Genetics

richard.dillon@kcl.ac.uk

Operational Team

Mai Worthington

Operations Manager

mai.worthington@gstt.nhs.uk

+44 (0) 20 7188 4274

Cheryl Gillett

Head of Biobanking

cheryl.gillett@kcl.ac.uk

+44 (0) 207 188 0874

Linda Gomm

Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Advanced Therapies

linda.gomm@gstt.nhs.uk

+44 (0) 207 188 7188

Cheryl Gillett, Rajani Chelliah

Biobank Contact

cheryl.gillet@kcl.ac.uk, rajani.chelliah@kcl.ac.uk

+44 (0) 207 188 0874, +44 (0) 207 848 5815

Cristina Lombardelli

Biobank Practitioner and Biobank Quality Manager

cristina.naceur-lombardelli@kcl.ac.uk

Rebecca Prue

Quality Manager

rebecca.prue@kcl.ac.uk

+44 (0) 207 848 5815

Rebekah Taylor

Lead Phase 1 Research Nurse

rebekah.Taylor@gstt.nhs.uk

Mai Worthington and Ambi Williams

Data Managers

mai.worthington@gstt.nhs.uk, ambi.williams@kcl.ac.uk

Cheryl Gillett

Translational Science Lead

cheryl.gillett@kcl.ac.uk

Jonathan Poon

Pharmacy Lead

Jonathan.poon@gstt.nhs.uk

Adult Expertise

Treatment Modalities

Gene therapy

Immunotherapy

Small Molecules

Surgery

Facilities/Translational Research

Dedicated 24 hour stay facilities (including weekends)
Radiopharmacy
On-site pharmacy
PK testing facility
Biobanking facilities
Dedicated research staff
Snap freezing facilities
On-site ITU (intensive treatment unit)
On-site central lab
MHRA- CRF Accreditated
Phase 1 Unit

Cancer Types

We have expertise in both solid tumours and haematological malignancies.

Areas of expertise include cellular and molecular immunotherapy, cancer vaccines, imaging and the development of devices for cancer surgery. KHP ECMC is hosted within the Guy's Clinical Research Facility, which is MHRA-accredited as a Phase 1 unit. Cell therapy and protein GMP production facilities are located at Guy's and King's College Hospital Campuses. Translational laboratory facilities are provided within the new £160m Guy's Cancer Centre.

Drug/Treatment Modalities

Advanced cellular therapies
Combination therapies
Cancer vaccines

Radiotherapy

We have regular access to photon radiotherapy. We have research expertise in the following:

Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT)
Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT)
4-Dimensional Radiotherapy (4DRT)
Stereotactic Radiotheray (SBRT/SABRT)
Internal Radiotherapy

Molecular Diagnostic Testing

We have the following available on a routine basis to our patients

Single gene testing
Disease specific NGS panel testing (next generation sequencing)
Large NGS pabel testing

This is available for both tumours and ctDNA (circulating tumour DNA)

We have dedicated staff in place to coordinate this. Our aim is that 100% of patients that are eligible for trials would have access to molecular diagnostic testing. Turnaround time for NGS is 2/3 weeks.

Case Study

Case Studies

'Safety and anti-tumour activity of the IgE antibody MOv18 in patients with advanced solid tumours: a phase 1 trial'

Spicer J, Basu B, Montes M, Banerji U, Kristeleit R, Veal G, Corrigan C, Till S, Figini M, Canevari S, Bartn C, Jones P, Mellor S, Carroll S, Selkirk C, Nintos G, Kwatra V, Funingana I, Doherty G, Gould H, Pellizzari G, Nakamura M, Ilieva K, Khiabany A, Stavraka C, Chauhan J, Gillett C, Pinder P, Bax H, Josephs D & Karagiannis S

Nature Communications (2023) doi 10.1038/s41467-023-39679-9

‘Intra-tumoral pan-ErbB targeted CAR-T for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: interim analysis of the T4 immunotherapy study’

Papa S, Adami A, Metoudi M, Beatson R, George M, Achkova D, Williams E, Arif S, Reid F, Elstad M, Beckley-Hoelscher N, Douri A, Delord M, Lyne M, Shivapatham D, Fisher C, Hope A, Gooljar S, Mitra A, Gomm L, Morton C, Henley-Smith R, Thavaraj S, Santambrogio A, Andoniadou C, Allen S, Gibson V, Cook G, Parente-Pereira A, Davies D, Farzaneh F, Schurich A, Guerrero-Urbano T, Jeannon J, Spicer J & Maher J.

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (2023) doi: 10.1136/jitc-2023-007162

‘Safety, anti-tumor activity and T-cell responses in a dose-ranging phase 1 study of the oncolytic peptide LTX-315 in patients with solid tumors’

Spicer J, Marabelle A, Baurain J, Jebsen N, Jøssang D, Awada A, Kristeleit R, Loirat D, Lazaridis G, Jungels C, Brunsvig P, Nicholaisen B, Saunders A, Patel H, Galon J, Hermitte F, Camilio K, Mauseth B, Sundvold V, Sveinbjørnsson B & Reckdal Ø.

Clinical Cancer Research (2021) doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-3435

AACR Annual Meeting, San Diego (Virtual), April

‘Phase 1 trial of MOv18, a first-in-class IgE antibody therapy for cancer’

Spicer J, Basu B, Montes M, Banerji U, Kristeleit R, Veal G, Corrigan C, Till S, Nintos G, Brier T, Funingana I, Ang J, ZakiK, Griffin A, Barton C, Jones P, Mellor S, Brook S, Stoddart K, Selkirk C, Carroll S, Lentfer H, Woodman N, Pope A, Pellizzari G, Nakamura M, Ilieva K, Khiabany A, Stavraka C, Gould H, Chauhan J, Bax H, Pinder P, Josephs D & Karagiannis S

‘MTL-CEBPA, a small activating RNA therapeutic up-regulating C/EBP-α, in patients with advanced liver cancer: a first-in-human, multi-centre, open-label, Phase I trial’

Sarker D, Plummer R, Meyer T, Sodergren M, Basu B, Chee CE, Huang K, Palmer D, Ma Y, Evans T, Spalding R, Pai M, Sharma R, Pinato D, Spicer J, Hunter S, Kwatra V, Nicholls J, Collin D, Nutbrown R, Glenny H, Fairbairn S, Reebye V, Voutila J, Dorman S, Andrikakou P, Lloyd P, Felstead S, Vasara J, Habib R, Wood C, Sætrom P, Huber H, Blakey D, Rossi J & Habib N

Clinical Cancer Research (2020) doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-0414

ESMO Annual Meeting, Barcelona, September 2019:

‘An open-label, randomized, phase I/II trial of IO102 and pembrolizumab, or IO102, pembrolizumab and chemotherapy, as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer’

Spicer J, Provencio M, Garrido Lopez P, Bosch-Barrera J, de Castro Carpeño F, Felip E, Trigo J, Viteri S, Coart E, Schmidt E, Christiansen A, Zocca M, Andersen M, Ehrnrooth E & Paz-Ares L

‘A phase I/II study of epertinib plus trastuzumab with or without chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer’

Macpherson IR, Spiliopoulou P, Rafii S, Saggese M, Baird RD, Garcia-Corbacho J, Italiano A, Bonneterre J, Campone M, Cresti N, Posner J, Takeda Y, Arimura A & Spicer J

Breast Cancer Research (2019) 22:1

‘A phase I study to assess afatinib in combination with carboplatin or with carboplatin plus paclitaxel in patients with advanced solid tumors’

O’Brien M, Sarker D, Bhosle J, Thillai K, Yap T, Uttenreuther-Fischer M, Pemberton K, Jin X, Wiebe S, de Bono J & Spicer J

Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology (2018) 82:757-66

‘Anti-folate receptor-α IgE but not IgG recruits macrophages to attack tumors via TNF-α/MCP-1 signaling’

Josephs D, Bax H, Dodev T, Georgouli M, Nakamura M, Pellizzari G, Saul L, Karagiannis P, Cheung A, Herraiz C, Ilieva K, Correa I, Fittall M, Crescioli S, Gazinska P, Woodman N, Mele S, Chiaruttini G, Gilbert AE, Koers A, Bracher M, Selkirk C, Lentfer H, Barton C, Lever E, Muirhead G, Tsoka S, Canevari S, Figini M, Montes A, Downes N, Dombrowicz D, Corrigan C, Beavil AJ, Nestle F, Jones P, Gould H, Sanz-Moreno V, Blower P, Spicer J & Karagiannis S

Cancer Research (2017) 77:1127-1141

London - King's Health Partners

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Scientific & Operational Team

Operational Team