WORLD CLASS BASIC, TRANSLATIONAL AND CLINICAL RESEARCH

The Head and Neck Cancer Biology group focus on salivary gland cancers because there is a significant unmet need in this patient group. Our primary aim is to develop a new biological understanding of how changes at the gene and protein level result in tumour growth and metastasis. This will be achieved through examination of genomic profiles in head and neck tumour samples in order to identify alterations that can be targeted by drug therapies. Novel insights provided by this approach will allow drugs to be screened using cell lines and mouse models. Those drugs which are found to be effective in laboratory studies will be taken forwards to clinical trials in patients with the goal of improving patient survival.

Initial research will focus on adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), working in collaboration with Caroline Dive CBE and the Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology group. ACC is a salivary gland cancer, which metastasises in over 50% of patients leading to a median survival of 3 years, with no effective drug therapies. Due to chromosomal rearrangements, 90% of ACC tumours are driven by overexpression of the myeloblastosis (MYB) transcription factor gene family members: a-MYB and c-MYB. The overall goal is to develop new therapies for ACC by identifying mechanisms through which MYB drives tumour growth and metastasis, and to develop predictive and prognostic biomarkers to optimise patient treatment.

Selected Publications

Rack S, Rahman R, Carter L, McKay C, Metcalf R. (2019)
Impact of tumour profiling on clinical trials in salivary gland cancer.
Clinical Otolaryngology 44(1):1-6. Article

Metcalf RL, Al-Hadithi E, Hopley N, Henry T, Hodgson C, McGurk A, Mansoor W, Hasan J. (2017)
Characterisation and risk assessment of venous thromboembolism in gastrointestinal cancers.
World J Gastrointest Oncol 9(9):363-371. PubMed abstract

Williamson S, Metcalf R, Trapani F, Mohan S, Antonello J, Abbott B, Leong HS, Chester C , Simms N, Polanski R, Nonaka D, Priest L, Fusi A, Carlsson F, Carlsson A, Hendrix M, Seftor R, Mrs. Elisabeth Seftor, Rothwell D, Hughes A, Hicks J, Miller C, Kuhn P, Brady G, Simpson K, Blackhall F, Dive C. (2016)
Vasculogenic Mimicry in Small Cell Lung Cancer.
Nature Communication 7:13322. PubMed abstract

Morrow CJ, Trapani F, Metcalf RL, Bertolini G, Hodgkinson CL, Khandelwal G, Kelly P, Galvin M, Carter L, Simpson KL, Williamson S, Wirth C, Simms N, Frankliln L, Frese KK, Rothwell DG, Nonaka D, Miller CJ, Brady G, Blackhall FH, Dive C. (2016)
Tumourigenic non-small-cell lung cancer mesenchymal circulating tumour cells: a clinical case study.
Annals of Oncology 27(6):1155-60. PubMed abstract

Hodgkinson CL, Morrow CJ, Li Y, Metcalf RL, Rothwell DG, Trapani F, Polanski R, Burt DJ, Simpson KL, Morris K, Pepper S, Nonaka D, Greystoke A, Kelly P, Bola B, Krebs MG, Antonello J, Ayub M, Faulkner S, Priest L, Carter L, Tate C, Miller CJ, Blackhall F, Brady G & Dive C. (2014)
Tumorigenicity and genetic profiling of circulating tumor cells in small-cell lung cancer.
Nature Medicine 20(8):897-903.  PubMed abstract