Professor James D Brenton is a clinician scientist and Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and Professor of Ovarian Cancer Medicine in the Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge.[1] He is an Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals,[2] Ovarian Cancer Domain Lead for the 100,000 Genomes Project by Genomics England,[3] and co-founder and Clinical Advisor to Inivata Ltd, a clinical cancer genomics company.[4]

James D Brenton
Alma materUniversity College London, University of Cambridge
Scientific career
InstitutionsCancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge Addenbrooke's Hospital
Websitewww.cruk.cam.ac.uk/research-groups/brenton-group

Education and career

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Dr Brenton studied Medicine at University College London, graduating in 1988, and trained in Medical Oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto.[5] He completed his PhD at the Gurdon Institute before attaining a Senior Clinical Research Fellowship for his work at the MRC Cancer Unit. In 2007 he became a Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, leading the Functional Genomics of Ovarian Cancer laboratory.

Research

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Brenton's research focuses on understanding the molecular complexity of ovarian cancer to improve treatment and patient outcome.[6] His team discovered a ubiquitous TP53 mutation in high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC),[7] the most common form of ovarian cancer, which was adopted as a critical marker for diagnosing HGSOC by the World Health Organisation.[8] Brenton used this TP53 discovery to develop personalised circulating tumour DNA assays to measure treatment response in ovarian cancer.[9][10]

In 2015, his team was the first to measure the tumour heterogeneity in a solid tumour and link this to cancer survival, finding that HGSOC was more deadly if it consisted of a patchwork of different groups of cells.[11][12][13][14][15]

In 2018, Brenton published the first national effort to investigate cancer evolution in HGSOC, discovering seven distinct genetic patterns that could predict disease behaviour in response to treatment.[16][17][18][19] This led to the BriTROC-2 study, funded by Ovarian Cancer Action, to create new, personalised treatments for women with HGSOC.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Dr James Brenton". Cancer Research UK. 2016-07-26. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  2. ^ "Dr James Brenton | Cambridge University Hospitals". www.cuh.nhs.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  3. ^ "Genomics England Announce Lead Researchers". Front Line Genomics. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  4. ^ "New Review of ctDNA Liquid Biopsies in Nature Reviews Cancer Co-Authored by Inivata CSO Nitzan Rosenfeld". Welcome to Inivata. 2017-02-24. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  5. ^ "Dr James Brenton". Cambridge Clinical Informatics. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  6. ^ "Research Gate".
  7. ^ Ahmed, Ahmed Ashour; Etemadmoghadam, Dariush; Temple, Jillian; Lynch, Andy G; Riad, Mohamed; Sharma, Raghwa; Stewart, Colin; Fereday, Sian; Caldas, Carlos; deFazio, Anna; Bowtell, David (May 2010). "Driver mutations in TP53 are ubiquitous in high grade serous carcinoma of the ovary". The Journal of Pathology. 221 (1): 49–56. doi:10.1002/path.2696. ISSN 0022-3417. PMC 3262968. PMID 20229506.
  8. ^ Duska, L. R.; Kohn, E. C. (2017-11-01). "The new classifications of ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancer and their clinical implications". Annals of Oncology. 28 (suppl_8): viii8–viii12. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdx445. ISSN 0923-7534. PMC 6246280. PMID 29232468.
  9. ^ Parkinson, Christine A.; Gale, Davina; Piskorz, Anna M.; Biggs, Heather; Hodgkin, Charlotte; Addley, Helen; Freeman, Sue; Moyle, Penelope; Sala, Evis; Sayal, Karen; Hosking, Karen (2016-12-20). "Exploratory Analysis of TP53 Mutations in Circulating Tumour DNA as Biomarkers of Treatment Response for Patients with Relapsed High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma: A Retrospective Study". PLOS Medicine. 13 (12): e1002198. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002198. ISSN 1549-1676. PMC 5172526. PMID 27997533.
  10. ^ "Searching for a blood test to monitor ovarian cancer". Cancer Research UK - Science blog. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  11. ^ Schwarz, Roland F.; Ng, Charlotte K. Y.; Cooke, Susanna L.; Newman, Scott; Temple, Jillian; Piskorz, Anna M.; Gale, Davina; Sayal, Karen; Murtaza, Muhammed; Baldwin, Peter J.; Rosenfeld, Nitzan (2015-02-24). "Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer: A Phylogenetic Analysis". PLOS Medicine. 12 (2): e1001789. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001789. ISSN 1549-1676. PMC 4339382. PMID 25710373.
  12. ^ "'Patchwork' ovarian cancer more deadly". Cancer Research UK. 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  13. ^ "Ovarian cancer more deadly if in 'patchwork' pattern | Cambridge University Hospitals". www.cuh.nhs.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  14. ^ "Unpicking the genetic 'patchwork' in ovarian cancer". Cancer Research UK - Science blog. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  15. ^ "'Patchwork' ovarian cancer is most deadly". The Best Of Health. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  16. ^ Macintyre, Geoff; Goranova, Teodora E.; De Silva, Dilrini; Ennis, Darren; Piskorz, Anna M.; Eldridge, Matthew; Sie, Daoud; Lewsley, Liz-Anne; Hanif, Aishah; Wilson, Cheryl; Dowson, Suzanne (September 2018). "Copy number signatures and mutational processes in ovarian carcinoma". Nature Genetics. 50 (9): 1262–1270. doi:10.1038/s41588-018-0179-8. ISSN 1546-1718. PMC 6130818. PMID 30104763.
  17. ^ "Unravelling ovarian cancer genome complexity – NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre". Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  18. ^ "Ovarian cancer genetics unravelled | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  19. ^ "Exciting new research could lead to personalised ovarian cancer treatments". Ovarian Cancer Action. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  20. ^ "BriTROC-2". Ovarian cancer Action. Retrieved 2019-11-18.