The Centre for Experimental Cancer Medicine is headed by Professors John Gribben and Nick Lemoine. It was set up as part of a joint initiative between the Department of Health and Cancer Research UK to establish a network of centres dedicated to rapidly translating preclinical work through early phase clinical trials and eventually into treatment.

The ECM at Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry and Barts and The London NHS Trust and will affiliate with the National Cancer Research Network and thus incorporate Phase I through Phase IV clinical trials.

The centre will provide management support for all trials and investigators including national, pharmaceutical and investigator led studies and will centralise all staff involved in clinical trials to ensure compliance with the European Directive on Good Clinical Practice.

Aims of the Centre:

• To increase recruitment into existing clinical trials
• To increase the number of trials – NCRN, pharma-sponsored and investigator-initiated.
• To increase the diversity of clinical trials open at Barts and The London NHS Trust.

Tumour types particularly covered include:

• Male genitourinary
• Haematological
• Breast
• Ovarian and gynaecological
• Gastrointestinal and pancreatic
• Lung and mesothelioma

Other special interests include:

• Gene Therapy – which can be delivered in the newly opened Experimental Medicines Unit
• Thrombosis in cancer
• Biological Therapies – including anti-chemokine and anti-cytokine antibodies, as well as cell-based therapies.
• Cancer Imaging – a PET-CT Centre will open in 2007

The UKCRC Experimental Medicine Resources website provides, for the first time, a central information repository on the UK’s capability and expertise in experimental medicine and early phase clinical trials. Links and further information can also be found on the UKCRN and UKCRC websites.

Please direct any questions about the ECM to cancer-ecmc@qmul.ac.uk