Prof Hani Gabra

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Section of Medicine, Department of Oncology
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
London

Understanding drug resistance in ovarian cancer

Professor Hani Gabra is head of the Section of Molecular Therapeutics at Imperial College, London. His research focuses on ovarian cancer. He is currently investigating the genes and proteins that cause resistance to chemotherapy drugs such as carboplatin.

Researchers across the UK are carrying out a large clinical trial, SCOTROC4, to determine the most effective dose of carboplatin to treat women with ovarian cancer.

Professor Gabra is leading a lab study in parallel with this clinical trial to analyse samples taken from trial participants. He aims to identify differences between cancer cells that are sensitive and those that are resistant to the effects of carboplatin.

The scientists are taking DNA samples from people's tumours and using a range of sophisticated techniques to look at thousands of genes within them. They plan to pool all this information and come up with a 'signature' of genes linked to drug resistance.

This team will then study this gene signature in a different set of clinical samples to see if it can be used to accurately predict whether a patient will respond well to carboplatin. In the future, this type of information may allow doctors to tailor treatments to individual patients to improve the likelihood of success and avoid unnecessary treatment.

Previously, Professor Gabra carried out extensive lab research into how drug resistance develops in ovarian cancer. This work has highlighted several key genes and proteins that may be involved. These will be explored further using the patient samples available from this clinical trial to find out more about the causes of resistance.

This information could lead to the development of new drugs designed to restore sensitivity in ovarian cancers that are resistant to chemotherapy.

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