Prof Eric Aboagye

Department of Surgery & Cancer
Imperial College
London

Picture this: images of cancer

Professor Eric Aboagye is Director of the Imperial College London Comprehensive Cancer Imaging Centre, which has been set up with support from Cancer Research UK and other funding organisations. He is using sophisticated imaging techniques to tackle cancer.

Imaging helps scientists and doctors to visualise tumours, so that they can detect cancer, track how the disease is progressing, and understand how it is responding to treatment. Professor Aboagye’s work spans all these areas.

One key focus for the team is investigating why some cancers become resistant to treatment – meaning they are less likely to respond to drugs. Professor Aboagye is finding ways to visualise how drugs are taken into tumours – this will shed more light on the mechanisms behind drug resistance.

Professor Aboagye and his team are also finding better ways to use PET, MRI and ultrasound scans to monitor tumours and track how well treatments are working.

Ultimately, imaging may form an important part of cancer treatment, enabling doctors to assess at an early stage whether or not a treatment is effective. To help boost this growing area of research Cancer Research UK is investing in imaging as part of our five year strategy.