As many of you will be aware Carol was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer which was highly aggressive and resistant to nearly all forms of treatment. One of her great wishes was to support research into understanding these types of tumour. 

In recent years it has become clear that every tumour is made up of many different groups of cancer cells, each with their own unique genetic makeup but all related to each other. This diversity occurs through evolutionary processes at work inside the tumour as the cells pick up genetic mutations that allow them to respond and adapt to changes in the environment around them. Understanding what drives tumour heterogeneity and mapping the evolutionary pathways at work, as cancers evolve and change, is essential if we are to treat cancer more effectively in the future.

The team led by Professor Charles Swanton, at University College Hospital London in collaboration with the Francis Crick Institute, are using the latest DNA sequencing technology to read the genetic makeup of cancer cells within tumours in ever greater detail, teasing out patterns of evolution and cancer heterogeneity to work out what changes have happened as a tumour evolves. They are also investigating the processes that cause mutations and accelerate tumour evolution and working out how they might be stopped by treatments including immune and targeted therapies. 

With gratitude

Michael and Olivia