Prof Charles Coombes

Improving treatment for breast cancer

Professor Charles Coombes is director of the Department of Oncology and heads the Section of Cancer Cell Biology at Hammersmith Hospital. He is working on new treatments for breast cancer.

Professor Coombes and his team are studying exactly how breast cancer cells respond to chemotherapy drugs by investigating key molecules in the cells. He is also developing and testing new breast cancer drugs in early stage clinical trials, as well as developing ways to monitor and treat breast cancers as they spread, particularly to the bone.

The female sex hormone oestrogen can fuel the growth of breast cancer cells. Drugs such as tamoxifen and anastrozole work by blocking either the action or production of oestrogen, so the hormone no longer stimulates cancer cells to grow. Professor Coombes and his team are studying how oestrogen binds to breast cancer cells and encourages them to grow. Understanding this will allow us to learn more about how anti-oestrogen treatments work, and develop even better ones.

In 2003, Professor Coombes helped to develop a new test that could help doctors to accurately predict which women with breast cancer will benefit from anti-oestrogen treatments. The test is now being assessed in a clinical trial.

As part of the International Collaborative Cancer Group, Professor Coombes helped to co-ordinate a large clinical trial to investigate the best way to treat breast cancer. This involvedg more than 4,700 women. The researchers found that cancer was less likely to return in women who took tamoxifen, and another anti-oestrogen treatment, exemestane, in a particular sequence.

And in 2006, Professor Coombes and his team completed the first early clinical trial of a brand new breast cancer drug, with promising initial results.