This Centre – led by Professor Fran Balkwill – focuses on the links between cancer and inflammation. The overarching hypothesis that drives research in our Centre is that immune cells and mediators found in experimental and human cancers are more likely to promote cancer growth than be part of a host anti-tumour response. We believe that inhibition or re-alignment of this inflammatory process may be of therapeutic benefit.

Our aim is to translate our laboratory research in chronic inflammation, cancer growth and spread into new treatment for cancer, especially ovarian and pancreatic cancer, and we are involved in several Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. We have excellent collaborations with the Departments of Gynaecological Oncology and the Gastrointestinal Cancer Speciality in Medical Oncology at Barts and The London NHS Hospitals.

We also have a strong commitment to public engagement with our work – visit www.centreofthecell.org

Facilities in the new refurbished laboratories include:

• Cytokine profiling in human and experimental samples using multiplex systems
• Gene expression arrays
• Expertise in a wide range of mouse models of cancer and inflammation

Research Groups

• Cytokines and Cancer Group
  Professor Frances Balkwill
  Aims to understand links between cancer and inflammation and translate this into novel clinical trials
• Inflammation Biology Group
  Dr Toby Lawrence
  Aims to understand the fundamental mechanisms by which link inflammation and cancer, with particular reference to the role of stromal and inflammatory cells in carcinogenesis
• Tumour Microenvironment
  Dr Thorsten Hagemann
  Aims to understand the fundamental mechanisms by which TNF-α signalling promotes cancer, with particular reference to the role of macrophages and their phenotype in carcinogenesis.