QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON CANCER PREVENTION

TRIALS UNIT

Led by Professor Peter Sasieni, The Cancer Research UK & Queen Mary University of London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU) is one of eight CRUK core funded UK Clinical Trials Units (CTUs). We specialize in the design and management of cancer screening and prevention trials. 

The Cancer Research UK Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU) at Queen Mary's University of London is a core-funded trials unit bringing a unique capability to the CRUK CTU network with its focus on the design and management of cancer prevention trials.


Our goal is to improve existing and establish new screening programmes by conducting clinical trials and studies that focus on cancer prevention, early diagnosis and screening.


We support investigators at Queen Mary University of London and throughout the UK. Our work involves evaluating existing screening programmes and studying new technologies and innovations that may lead to new or improved screening programmes.


We aim to optimise the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of existing programmes whilst minimising associated harms. We are particularly interested in stratified screening and the interface between population screening and targeted early diagnosis.

NEWS

• BEST4 Platform for the Cytosponge- A proposal for a trial nested within a National Implementation Pilot – led by Prof Rebecca Fitzgerald and Prof Peter Sasieni; Funder: Cancer Research UK.


• The E-Cigarette Registry has closed to recruitment, with a total of 138 participants consented. 


• Vapeline trial is over halfway towards it's recruitment target. The trial is investigating whether e-cigarettes can help smokers quit with less intensive behavioural support (telephone or no support).  


• The PREP trial of e-ciagrettes and patches in pregnancy have now been published. They indicate that the use of e-cigarettes as an aid to smoking cessation do not increase abstinence rates at the end of pregnancy, but the safety data provides some reassurance that e-cigarettes do not seem to pose more risk to birth and maternal outcomes.  


• The research study offering self-sampling for HPV testing to women overdue cervical screening (ALOHA) has completed clinical follow-up. Analysis is currently taking place with publication expected in the summer. 

In the early months of the pandemic, CPTU staff assisted in designing and setting up clinical trials and implementing innovations to address problems created by COVID-19. 


Examples include: 


• Having an independent biostatistician on the international Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the US NIAID Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) (Sasieni) 


• Implementation of high-dose vitamin D supplementation for in-patients in SLaM (a large mental-health Trust) 


• Establishment of an emergency pathway in which Lynch patients (nationally) were offered fecal immunochemical test (FIT) kits for surveillance in order to prioritise colonoscopy for those with the greatest need (results published).  


• Thanks to the CPTU trial called BEST3, Cytosponge testing was offered to patients with urgent referrals to secondary care with suspected oesophageal  cancer in Cambridge University Hospitals at a time when upper GI endoscopy was not taking place (di Pietro et al. Lancet Gastro & Hepato 2020). 


RESEARCH SHOWCASE

COLLABORATE WITH US

If you are interested in seeking our advice or collaborating with us on a research project,  please get in touch by email. You can also download a collaboration request proforma here.

1st Floor Empire House

Queen Mary University of London Whitechapel

67-75 New Road

 E1 1HH

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