Dr Thorsten Hagemann

Dr Thorsten Hagemann

Centre for Cancer and Inflammation    
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
London

Reducing inflammation to treat pancreatic cancer

Dr Thorsten Hagemann is a Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Cancer and Inflammation at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He is investigating how cancer cells can cause inflammation, which protects them from being destroyed by the body's immune system. In particular, his research focuses on pancreatic cancer.

TNF-alpha

Dr Hagemann is investigating a molecule called TNF-alpha that is produced by cancer cells. He aims to understand how TNF-alpha is involved in cancer development and to find out how it interacts with immune cells.

TNF-alpha causes inflammation, which helps cancer cells to go unnoticed by the immune system. This allows them to evade destruction by the body's natural defences, letting the cancer develop further. Scientists have also discovered that TNF-alpha helps cancer cells to make new blood vessels, which provide nutrients that the cells need to grow and spread around the body.

Improving treatments

Understanding more about how TNF-alpha works could lead to new treatments that 're-educate' the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. Drugs that block the action of TNF-alpha have shown promising results in early clinical trials. These drugs could be used alongside chemotherapy in the future to improve the effectiveness of certain treatments. Dr Hagemann's group are also investigating when is the best time for these drugs to be given.

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