News
New 2yr Clinical Fellowship has been Awarded
Wednesday May 13th 2009
We are pleased to announce that the 2yr Rod Cassady Clinical Fellowship has been awarded to Dr Gerald Saldanha & Dr Howard Pringle from the Universtiy of Leicester for their research into:
Plasma microRNAs: novel markers for tumour detection and progression in melanoma
In lay terms:
Melanoma is an aggressive skin cancer. Staging, which involves determining the extent of the disease, is the best predictor of whether a patient will succumb to disease or survive. However, its predictive ability is fairly inaccurate, especially for patients with melanomas that have invaded deeply into the skin. A simple blood test that improves the accuracy of staging for outcome prediction would be extremely important. This project aims to assess whether the measurement of a certain class of molecule called microRNA can be used to identify patients who are more likely to have aggressive melanoma. The study involves measuring over 600 microRNAs in the blood of patients with thick melanoma and analysing whether they can distinguish those patients known to have developed spread of the disease from those that didn’t. If successful, this test would enable more informed planning of treatment for patients at greatest risk and reassurance for those at low risk.
If you would like a more detailed explanation of the clinical fellowship, then please contact the Hope office.
