Experimental Cancer Medicine Team Programme in Immune Oncology

Programme description

Already amongst the largest Experimental Cancer Medicine Trials (ECMT) Units in the UK, the ECMT at The Christie has an ambitious goal of becoming one of the top three recruiting Experimental Cancer Medicine Units in Europe and one of the top five in the world by 2020. The team’s mission statement of ‘delivering tomorrow’s treatment today’ is underpinned by strong collaborative team working across the approximately 40 team members. These include physicians, research nurses, trials administrators and managers, clinical research secretaries and administrators. The team has an exciting portfolio of over 20 currently recruiting Phase I and non-randomised Phase II trials with a focus on first-in-human, first-in-combination, biomarker and regulatory clinical pharmacology studies. The four Principal Investigators are all research-active and are building a strengthening portfolio of investigator-lead clinical trials and translational research programmes. The Clinical Fellows within ECMT have wide-ranging opportunities to gain experience in clinical and translational research projects, clinical trials education through the Masters Programme in Experimental Cancer Medicine, as well as excellent experience in the clinical management of patients on early phase clinical trials.

Dr Fiona Thistlethwaite leads the Immune-oncology (IO) programme within ECMT. The field of IO has seen enormous expansion in recent years with the rapid develop of checkpoint inhibitors, now reaching into mainstream oncology. Within ECMT, there is a flourishing early phase pipeline of new IO drugs and combinations across multiple tumour types. The identification of predictive biomarkers and strategies for immune monitoring are an area of research interest for Dr Thistlethwaite, along-side the development of complex immunotherapies including cellular therapy. With strong links to the recently established Tumour Immunology and Inflammation Monitoring Laboratory (TIIML) lead by Professor Caroline Dive, a growing portfolio of translational studies is anticipated and a number of projects are already in development. An IO Clinical Fellowship within the ECMT represents an excellent opportunity to obtain clinical experience of managing patients enrolled into Phase I clinical trials across a range of tumour types being treated with novel immunotherapies and identifying and managing related toxicities. There is also the opportunity to become involved in and develop translational research projects within this exciting field.