Inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria and study summary
Upper gastrointestinal tumours have some of the worst survival rates of all cancer subtypes. 85% of Gastric cancer patients will not survive for 10 years and the figure is 88 % for oesophageal cancer. Cancer research UK has identified oesophageal cancer as an unmet need and a priority for research. More recently oesophageal and stomach cancer were both included in the less survivable cancers taskforce (a collaboration between 5 charities to improve outcomes in 6 cancers that are responsible for more than 50% of cancer deaths and receive only a fifth of the funding of more survivable cancers). Our work is also supported by the leading UK charity, Heartburn Cancer UK and our Chief Investigator is a trustee of the charity. The aim of this study is to increase understanding of the biology of upper gastrointestinal tumours with the eventual hope of identifying targets for new therapies. Our focus will be on the interplay between cancer cells and the normal cells that surround them in the tumour micro-environment. The study will be run from the Southampton Cancer Research UK centre and we will recruit patients undergoing treatment for upper gastrointestinal tumours at the Southampton and Portsmouth regional referral centres. Tissue will be used to identify and create a database of all of the normal and cancerous cell types present in upper GI tumours. We will examine the interplay between them with particular emphasis on immune cells and inflammatory cells. We will identify signalling pathways and interactions that can be manipulated with new therapies with the aim of improving survival across upper gastrointestinal cancer.
