Ovarian and Breast Cancer: New strategies to target the right treatment to the right patient

Join us for a public engagement event. The speakers will be Dr Gourley and Professor David Cameron, an internationally recognised expert in breast cancer. The evening will be hosted by Assistant Principal, Professor John Smyth, Emeritus Professor of Medical Oncology.

An Edinburgh University public engagement event

Studying the genetics of cancer can help select patients for the most appropriate treatment. Edinburgh University is at the forefront internationally of identifying “groups” of patients for whom treatment can be much more selective than in the past - ovarian and breast cancer are key areas for this research. A highlight of this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, attended by more than 30 000 people from around the world, was a presentation by Dr Charles Gourley, a Reader in the University of Edinburgh’s Cancer Research Centre. Using the technique of Microarray Expression Analysis Dr Gourley’s team analysed the tumour tissues from more than 360 patients with ovarian cancer for whom their clinical outcome was known. From their analysis of thousands of genes they have identified 6 subgroups which relate to different overall survival (p<0.0001). Intriguingly the cluster that distinguished itself most prominently contained genes involved in the process of vascularisation, known as angiogenesis. Dr Gourley’s findings suggest that it could now be possible to fingerprint future ovarian cancer patients tumours to select women most likely to benefit from antiangeogenic therapies. Similar research is being conducted in breast cancer to classify women into specific groups for whom more selective treatment programmes are now becoming a real possibility.