Centre for Tumour Microenvironment

‘Sugar-coated’ tumour matrix may offer way to make triple-negative breast cancer easier to treat

Researchers at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, have discovered a way in which the environment surrounding triple-negative breast cancer cells helps suppress our immune system, making this cancer harder to treat. The findings open the door to a potential new treatment strategy that could make triple-negative breast cancers more vulnerable to the immune system and help more people to benefit from immunotherapy in future.

Lab-grown ovarian ‘mini-tumours’ provide new tool for immunotherapy research

Researchers have developed a way to grow miniature ovarian tumours in the lab that mimic the tumour environment found in patients. The new approach offers a useful way to study how cancer cells interact with the immune system and to explore potential treatments. Ultimately, it could help accelerate progress for patients and reduce reliance on research methods involving animals.

Barts Cancer Institute teams awarded nearly £3m from Cancer Research UK to seek novel cancer therapy targets

Scientists identify strategy to make chemotherapy more effective for women with ovarian cancer

Scientists have discovered a potential way to improve chemotherapy’s effect on ovarian cancer by manipulating specific immune cells around the tumour, potentially offering a way to help thousands of women with ovarian cancer benefit more from standard therapies and potentially delay relapses.

Video: Engineering a Tumour on a Chip

Meet Dr Joash Joy, a postdoctoral researcher working on engineering artificial tumours to explore how cancer therapies can be made more effective.

Scientists uncover protein with the power to help or hinder breast cancer progression

The findings could help more patients to benefit from the latest advances in immunotherapies.

Dr Luigi Ombrato awarded Cancer Research UK grant to understand how the seeds of secondary tumours grow

Congratulations to Dr Luigi Ombrato who has been awarded a £700k grant to investigate the earliest stages of cancer spread.

New study suggests promising approach for treating pancreatic cancer

Researchers have pinpointed the cells that drive the spread of pancreatic cancer and revealed a weakness in these cells that could be targeted using existing cancer drugs.

Video: Illuminating the city of cells inside cancer

A new technique produces stunning, nebula-like images of tumours that provide crucial insights into cancer, how it behaves and how our immune cells attempt to fight it.

Skin cancer rewires its energy systems to spread more efficiently

Melanoma cells rewire their mitochondria, but reversing this could make tumour cells less invasive.

Ovarian cancer’s protective barrier: how the tumour matrix teaches cells to disarm immune attack

The results suggest new strategies to overcome the cancer’s defences and treat patients more effectively

Building a human tumour microenvironment in the lab

Researchers from Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London, led by Professor Fran Balkwill and Dr Oliver Pearce, have built two 3D multi-cellular models of the human tumour microenvironment (TME) in ovarian cancer. The models, which are the first created from the CanBuild project, have revealed novel insights into the role of the TME in cancer progression.

Impact of chemotherapy on immune cells in the TME

Research from Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, has revealed novel insights into the effects of chemotherapy on the tumour microenvironment (TME). The study found that chemotherapy enhances the anti-tumour actions of immune cells within the TME and their ability to support immune responses against cancer.

Blood vessel protein has protective role in cancer

A study has identified a novel mechanism that controls tumour growth, involving a particular protein expressed by specialised cells within tumour blood vessels.

Pericytes and control of cancer growth

New study reveals novel insights into the role of blood vessels within the tumour microenvironment in the regulation of cancer growth. Understanding this relationship better may provide new avenues that can be explored for cancer therapies.

The TME: Key to controlling cancer cell growth

Mouse models of ovarian cancer

Research led by the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, has revealed that mouse models of the most common and deadly form of ovarian cancer, high-grade serous ovarian cancer, can effectively replicate the disease in humans. These models provide useful pre-clinical tools that may help to determine which patients are likely to respond to particular treatments.