Science Talk

The ICR’s Dr George Poulogiannis and his team have revealed a metabolic weakness in cancer that could be targeted by combining new drugs with a diet free of omega-6 fats. Our Media Officer Diana Cano Bordajandi explains the research findings and their potential implications.

Professor Nick James, Chief Investigator of the STAMPEDE trial, joined the ICR in December 2019 and is one of our newest Team Leaders. Diana Cano Bordajandi met him to find out more about his current research and future plans, which will help us answer key questions on how to treat men with prostate cancer.

At a time when cancer researchers usually descend on Chicago for the biggest cancer conference of the year, Sarah Wells looks ahead at some of the highlights that researchers from The Institute of Cancer Research will be presenting at this year’s virtual edition of the ASCO Annual Meeting.

Cryo-electron microscopy is an exciting technology that could revolutionise drug design by seeing complex molecules in unprecedented detail. The Institute of Cancer Research has been at the vanguard in applying it to cancer – and now a new collaboration called the London Consortium for Cryo-EM (LonCEM) is using this super-cooled technique to learn more about the mechanisms of life and cancer.

Henry French introduces a new project at the ICR, where cancer researchers are turning their expertise in the creation of high-affinity antibodies to new approaches to COVID-19 testing and treatment.

March is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Web Editor Dave Morgan reviews four recent news stories covering different types of prostate cancer research taking place at The Institute of Cancer Research.

Maureen is 56 and is living with advanced, incurable breast cancer. Before the outbreak of coronavirus, she wrote a blog post about why she’s making the most of the life she has now. This is a very difficult time for many, but here at the ICR we’re doing everything we can to ensure our life-saving work continues, so that we can give people like Maureen more time to spend with their loved ones.

Research carried out by The Institute of Cancer Research, London, into cancer susceptibility genes has transformed our understanding of the inheritance of cancer risk. Genetic information can be used to help people with cancer and their families by informing them about their risk and guiding decisions over personalised cancer treatment. Cara Hoofe was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016. She has the inherited condition Lynch syndrome which means she had an 80% chance of developing bowel cancer and has a higher risk of developing womb and ovarian cancer. Here she explains how living with Lynch syndrome has changed her life.

Hundreds of thousands of men with prostate cancer across the world are now able to live longer and with a better quality of life, thanks to abiraterone. Discovered and developed by The Institute of Cancer Research, the drug was the first treatment shown to be effective in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Rob Lester is one of those patients, and has been on abiraterone for around 8 years.

Obesity is known to be linked to cancer risk, but new research shows that weight gain is linked to a *lower* risk of breast cancer among women before the menopause. In this blog post, Joanne Duffy takes a closer look at the findings and explains how this contributes to our understanding of breast cancer risk factors.

New results from an ICR-led clinical trial are set to change the outlook for patients with a rare form of kidney cancer. Sarah Wells takes a look at some of the main challenges in studying rare cancers, and how the ICR’s researchers are going about making discoveries to improve the outlook for the one in five cancer patients with a rare cancer.

Scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, gathered recently at this year’s Festival of Genomics. Diana Cano Bordajandi, Media Officer at The Institute of Cancer Research, reports on the themes that ran through the conference.

To celebrate Darwin Day, The Institute of Cancer Research invited world-leading expert on the biology of ageing, Professor Dame Linda Partridge, to talk about how ageing stems from evolutionary processes, and what it means for diseases like cancer.

To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science this year, we're sharing some advice from our scientists about pursuing a career in research.

ICR alumnus Professor Tim Eisen is now Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development at AstraZeneca. We caught up with him at a recent event where he shared his career advice and thoughts about working in industry.

Our researchers have been working with oncologists in Nepal since 2017 to share their expertise, and improve research and cancer care in the country.

We’ve learned a lot about cancer in the last decade, with survival rates better now than ever before. Our Policy Adviser, Roya Ziaie, takes a look at what might be in store over the next ten years in an ever-changing field.

Dr Max Douglas recently joined the ICR as leader of the Telomere Biology Team. By rebuilding telomeres in the lab, he aims to unpick how they work to understand their link to cancer. Diana Cano Bordajandi met him to find out more.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research have already been involved in the discovery and development of many targeted treatments that are helping cancer patients live longer and with a better quality of life. Now we’re taking our research a step further with the world’s first drug discovery programme to tackle the challenge of drug resistance. Christine O’Connell, who is living with advanced breast cancer, explains why it’s so important.

Regulation of new cancer therapies, whilst crucially important, can become a barrier to innovation. Our Policy Adviser, Roya Ziaie, takes a look at the current regulatory landscape and what is needed in the future to ensure innovative treatments find their way to patients as quickly as possible.