The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre Podcast Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre

In this special episode of our podcast, we bring you a recording of a live 'Ask Me Anything (AMA)' event held by our Pancreatic Cancer Programme for World Pancreatic Cancer Day on 16 November 2023. The AMA webinar saw specialists from across different disciplines answering questions submitted by members of the public and discussing topics related to day-by-day living with pancreatic cancer.

In alphabetical order, the AMA panel consisted of:

Dr Bristi Basu, an Academic Consultant in Medical Oncology specialising in experimental cancer therapeutics at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the clinical co-lead of the CRUK Cambridge Centre Pancreatic Cancer Programme.

Yvonne Cartwright, a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Paulo Fidalgo, a Gastroenterologist at the Digestive Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Centre in Portugal, and head of their Risk Assessment and Early Diagnosis Programme.

Kirsty Hoare, a Cancer Support Specialist at Maggie's.

Dr Asif Jah, a Consultant Surgeon in hepato-pancreatico-biliary (HPB) and transplant surgery at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Clinical Lead of the Department of HPB Surgery and Associate Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.

Jeni Jones, a Pancreatic Cancer Specialist Nurse at Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Laura McGeeney, a Pancreatic Cancer Specialist Dietician at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Sally Pascall, a 13-year survivor of pancreatic cancer, and one of our patient representatives who advises the Pancreatic Cancer Programme on issues that are relevant to patients.

Abigail Redman, an HPB Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In this special episode of our podcast, Hui-Ling Ou is joined by Isobel Turbin to talk about inherited pancreatic cancer, genetic testing, and genetic counselling. They also discuss which genetic tests are currently available, why these genes are important, and how testing results may help pancreatic cancer patients.

Dr Hui-Ling Ou is the Programme Manager for the Pancreatic Cancer Programme at the CRUK Cambridge Centre at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Isobel Turbin is a Principal Genetic Counsellor within the East Anglia Regional Genetics Service, UK. She currently holds cancer genetic, general genetic, and prenatal genetic clinics at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, as well as monthly general genetic clinics in King's Lynn, UK. Isobel is also the Education and Training Co-lead in the East Anglian Genetic Counselling Team.

Useful links mentioned in this podcast episode:

National Genomic Test Directory: www.england.nhs.uk/publication/national-genomic-test-directories

EUROPAC: www.europactrial.com

Genetic Alliance UK: www.geneticalliance.org.uk

Genetic and Genomic Testing (NHS webpage): www.nhs.uk/conditions/genetic-and-genomic-testing

Clinical Genetics at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: www.cuh.nhs.uk/our-services/clinical-genetics

In today's episode, Ellie Wolmark is joined by Natalie Ellis, Ellen Nowak and Lauren Gardiner Walton to talk about the development of the Arts Strategy for the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH). They also discuss the benefits of the arts in cancer care and in supporting patient treatment and recovery.

If you would like to get involved in the CCRH project by joining any of the groups that Ellen mentions in this episode, further information can be found at: www.cambridgecancer.org.uk/our-community/get-involved

Natalie is Head of Arts at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Ellen is an Arts Programme Manager at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Lauren is a member of the CCRH Environment Design Working Group as well as being Curator of the Cambridge University Herbarium, and was recently treated for cancer.

About CUH Arts:
CUH Arts is Cambridge University Hospitals' arts-in-health programme, dedicated to shaping care through creativity. They strive to promote wellbeing, distract from illness, and improve the hospital experience by providing excellent creative and cultural opportunities for patients, staff, visitors and the wider community. Embedded within one of the world's leading hospital trusts, their diverse, person-centred, multi-disciplinary programme of live, participatory and visual arts is facilitated and managed by an expert team of arts professionals in collaboration with artists and cultural partners.

In this episode, Professor Charlotte Coles talks about her work on the personalisation of radiation techniques to give patients with cancer the best chance of cure with the least side effects.

Charlotte is Professor of Breast Cancer Clinical Oncology and Deputy Head of the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge, UK. She is also the Director of CRUK RadNet Cambridge.

In this week's episode, Professor Florian Markowetz talks about his work and recent publication on chromosomal instability. Chromosomal instability is a dynamic process of DNA change, which leads to some DNA being present multiple times and some being lost altogether. Some cancers are dominated by this process of genomic disruption; ovarian, pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancer for example. These chaotic DNA changes mean that there are not good biomarkers present to guide treatment decisions. Florian's laboratory has found a structure underlying chromosomal instability and has identified genomic fingerprints which enable them to read out the fundamental reasons for the DNA changes.

Florian is a group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Dr Marcel Gehrung talks about how his research at the CRUK Cambridge Centre led him to co-found the start-up Cyted with Rebecca Fitzgerald, Professor of Cancer Prevention and Director of the Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Maria O'Donovan, lead pathologist for upper gastrointestinal cancer and diagnostic cytology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Cyted combines innovative AI-driven diagnostics with a new sample collection method to detect and prevent oesophageal cancer, developed at Cambridge University.