Speaker

Dr. Rebecca Hill.


On the left sits the Vice President of Birtley, Maureen Maltby. Next to her is the Guest speaker, Doctor Rebecca Hill, (Consultant) At the podium is President Hardial Jagpal addressing the meeting then guest President of Washington R.C. Ken Seed.
Our speaker for the evening of June 23rd proved to be one of, if not the best, speaker we have had addressing the club. Vice President Maureen introduced her and gave us a small resume of Rebeccas qualifications which took most by surprise, for such a petite and young person to be so highly qualified in her vocation was a delight to all. The delay caused by the power point not operating immediately did not faze the lady at all, for when she began her talk it took only seconds to realise that this was a person with an astounding knowledge of her subject, her passion for her work showed at all times and as she talked us through not only the multitudes of different cancer tumours, but how the research teams were combatting the way the cancer robbed us of the children at such a young age.
Quite a few of the members and guests were basically ignorant of the various types of cancer but Rebecca made a really heartrending subject a one which we all understood a lot more about with her help. What's more she did it in such a way as to maintain the attention of every listener, As always one can access the popularity of a talk by the amount of questions, On this occasion the President had to call a stop to them as we all had something to offer and the meeting was running a full hour over normal time.

Information only =

Despite intensive treatment children with medullobalstoma relapse in up to a third of cases. Over 90% of relapsed patients will die from their disease. The biological mechanisms underlying this are poorly understood and have not been investigated in any detail.

Relevance to Cancer.

Central nervous system (CNS) tumours are the most common paediatric malignancies of which medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant tumour. Deaths from this tumour are responsible for 10% of childhood cancer deaths.

Anticipated benefits

This research will enhance our understanding of the molecular basis of relapsed disease so we can potentially identify biological markers associated with relapse, and discover specific biological pathways that may be targets for future novel therapies.

Outline plan of research

In this study we will assemble a large cohort (up to 50) of relapsed MBs, together with their accompanying primary diagnostic biopsy, and characterise this cohort on a genome-wide basis with respect to epigenetic alterations at diagnosis and relapse, using the Illumina GoldenGate Cancer Panel I DNA methylation array. Following data analysis of the clinical, pathological and epigenetic features of this cohort, we will identify and validate biological markers associated with disease relapse, and identify biological pathways that may be targeted in future therapeutic strategies.

 
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