The Centre for Molecular Pathology (Joe Dunckley for the ICR, 2013)

Centre for Molecular Pathology

The Centre for Molecular Pathology is a collaborative initiative between The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research, aiming to identify the molecular mechanisms that drive cancers and to target them with a new generation of treatments.

How we research at this centre

The purpose-built centre on the Sutton site provides an innovative environment with state of the art laboratories, bringing together world experts in molecular pathology, bioinformatics and translational research.

The centre’s research objectives aim to expedite the process by which personalised medicine is embedded as a routine part of cancer care for patients. The focus will be to develop molecular diagnostics and biomarkers for cancer, to allow patient treatment to be personalised. Researchers aim to identify reliable biomarkers of disease prognosis or treatment response, and new molecular targets for a range of tumour types. This will drive the development of novel anti-cancer drugs.

The Centre for Molecular Pathology is funded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research Biomedical Research Centre at The Royal Marsden and the ICR – the only specialist Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer.

 

Recent discoveries at the ICR

breast cancer cell
Major trial shows prolonged benefit of olaparib in early-stage inherited breast cancer

12/12/24

One year of treatment with the targeted drug olaparib improves long-term survival in women with high-risk, early-stage breast cancer with mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, new results from a major clinical trial show.
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Breast cancer cell spheroid blue and purple
New understanding of aggressive form of breast cancer paves the way for tests and treatments

10/12/24

Scientists have developed a machine learning tool that can predict how an aggressive type of breast cancer will respond to treatment, and when it will return.
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Breast cancer cell
Scientific achievements of 2024

02/12/24

We've selected a range of discoveries from 2023/24 – chosen because they illustrate the quality and breadth of our basic, translational and clinical research and our ambitions under the ICR's research strategy.
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Johann de Bono and Mateus Crespo Prostate cancer cells 547x410
Scientists can predict how long prostate cancer patients will respond to olaparib

21/11/24

Scientists have worked out a way of predicting how long a prostate cancer patient will continue to respond to the PARP inhibitor drug, olaparib, according to new research published in the journal Cancer Cell.
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