Early Detection of Cancer Conference 2024
The Early Detection of Cancer Conference was held from 22nd to 24th October 2024 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Downtown SOMA. Hosted by the Canary Centre at Stanford, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, and Cancer Research UK, this annual conference brought together experts in early detection across multiple disciplines who shared groundbreaking research and progress in the field, including a cohort of our Manchester Researchers.
The conference is part of a long-term commitment to invest in early detection research, to understand the biology behind cancers at an early stage, find new methods for detection and screening and enhance the uptake and accuracy of this screening.
The event featured diverse discussions on the latest research innovations and discoveries in early detection science. Key topics include biology’s role in early detection, new technologies, insights from detection trials, and AI’s potential and limitations. Attendees can expect expert panels, debates, and networking opportunities.
This year’s conference boasted a plethora of engaging discussions, lightning talks from submitted abstracts and opportunities to network with experts from across the globe. It also saw the return of the ‘Great Debates’ as speakers went head-to-head to debate provocative early detection challenges.
2024 session topics included:
- How is biology informing early detection?
- Emerging technologies for cancer early detection
- Insights from Early Detection Trials
- Artificial Intelligence – promises vs. reality for early detection
Sitting on the panel for ‘Global Challenges in Cancer Early Detection’ at the Early Detection of Cancer Conference 2024 was an excellent opportunity to highlight the importance of fostering trust through sustained international research partnerships, as demonstrated by our Kenya collaboration. Empowering local partners to define their research priorities and directing significant resources to support infrastructure development ensures long-term, independent, and equitable access to cancer detection and treatment. The conference was a vital platform for sharing innovations, exchanging ideas, and building collaborations that will shape the future of early cancer detection globally. I was also delighted to attend the conference with our talented Manchester cohort, whose contributions showcased the breadth of innovation and expertise driving our collective mission. The conference provided a vital platform for sharing innovations, exchanging ideas, and building collaborations that will shape the future of early cancer detection globally.
Professor Robert Bristow
Director of the MCRC
Panel Discussion: Global challenges in cancer early detection – Professor Rob Bristow
Moderator: Bill Dahut, American Cancer Society (Right)
Rob Bristow, University of Manchester (Left middle)
Jennifer Moodley, University of Cape Town (Right middle)
Sok Ching Cheong, Cancer Research Malaysia (Right)
Prof Rob Bristow sat on the panel for the ‘Global challenges in cancer early detection’ and provided a comprehensive overview of the Kenya partnership. He covered, among other things, the importance of building trust through developing international research partnerships over time. He also raised the importance of ensuring that treatment options are established and available for all patients who may receive a positive result from a cancer early detection test.
He spoke about the need to ensure that grant proposals are written in collaboration by the developing international partner. Rob spoke about our ongoing project partnering with Kenyatta Universtiy Teaching Referral and Research Hospital in Kenya, and how our Kenyan partners decided the cancer of interest to research. Rob also flagged the importance of a significantly higher proportion of the funding going to our partners in this instance so that they can build and establish the infrastructure required to independently offer high quality cancer treatment in the future.
Great Debate: Research focusing on early detection of rare cancers is a waste of money – Dr Emma Woodward
Dr Emma Woodward argued against the motion in the great debate: ‘Research focussing on early detection of rare cancers is a waste of money’. She raised the need to identify those at high-risk of rare cancers (E.g. due to hereditary mutations) and argued that investing in rare cancer early detection is paramount, as these cancers tend to disproportionately affect children and young people with the greatest potential of life years gained.
“It was wonderful to have the opportunity to highlight the importance of pursuing early detection research for childhood and rare cancers, given the potential for many life years gained.”
~ Dr Emma Woodward, Consultant Clinical Geneticist and Honorary Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester and NIHR Manchester BRC Children’s Research Lead
Lightning Talks: How is biology informing early detection? – Dr Eleanor Roberts
“Polygenic Risk Scores Derived in White European Women Overestimate Breast Cancer Risk in Women of Black Origin.”
Dr Eleanor Roberts discussed how to refine the use of breast cancer polygenic risk scores (PRS) in women of diverse genetic ancestry, specifically women of Black origin. She showed how current breast cancer PRS are significantly over predicting risk in women of Black ancestry. She also demonstrated how by using Multi-dimensional Scaling to infer more specific ethnicity, the women who had the strongest African ancestry were able to have their risk score corrected using known data from members of the Black community. She explained that despite this, the best way to improve risk prediction in diverse populations is by carrying out large-scale genetic studies in these under-researched groups to ensure health equality.
“It was a privilege to present at this conference and a great opportunity to demonstrate the progress we have made in breast cancer genetic testing to improve health equity for people of diverse ancestry.”
~ Dr Eleanor Roberts, Postdoc at The University of Manchester
Poster Sessions
Dr Jen Davies-Oliveira
Jen presented the Alternative CErvical Screening (ACES) studies exploring urine as an alternative sampling method to current cervical screening. These Manchester based studies, which recruited over 2000 participants, have found really promising test accuracy results when urine is sampled utilising a specialised first void urine collection device and tested for the human papillomavirus (HPV). Urine has real-world potential to be offered as a sampling type in future cervical screening programmes.
Dr Emmanouela Mitta
Emmanouela presented their paper on ‘The Effect of Breathing Motion on A Model of Early-Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma’. Their poster covered how the study evaluated the effect of cyclic mechanical strain on lung alveolar epithelial cell lines harbouring mutations in the KRAS gene. Using imaging tools and transcriptomics the study compared different aspects of the cell phenotype in a static vs. a dynamic model adopting cyclic mechanical strain. Cells in the dynamic model showed lower expression of cancer-associated markers compared to those in the static model. In static conditions cells quickly adopt features of malignancy including upregulation of malignancy markers and down regulation of epithelial markers, increased motility and migration. It is therefore hypothesised that mechanical strain slows down cancer progression compared to static conditions. The study highlights how the dynamic model recapitulates lung physiology better than standard in vitro models and how it can provide a more realistic course of cancer progression in the field of early detection.
Dr Seung hyun Lee
Lee presented on a workflow to integrate formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens and highly multiplexed immunofluorescence (mIF) to address our aim. Lee and the team are creating a mIF digital pathology atlas via Co-detection by Indexing (CODEX, Akoya Biosciences) and bioimage visualisation and analysis workflow using open-source software. This enables preservation of multiple antigen expression and their spatial coordinates. It therefore allows comparison of composition and ecology of pancreatic microenvironment at different stages of pancreatic tumour development. Development of this spatial single cell atlas of human pancreatic tissue microenvironment will serve as a unique modality to discovering key microenvironment niches for malignant progression, and novel theranostic strategies of PDAC management.
Dr Sean Knight
Sean presented his lab’s work on characterising differences in peripheral immune cells in people who have lung cancer. We have profiled whole blood with mass cytometry on the day of collection, in contrast to most studies that require a freezing step. This has enabled a holistic analysis and detection of a sub-population of CD8 T cells is lower in the blood of people with cancer. Current work involves optimising a minimal panel of detection that can be converted into a test for early detection.
Andrew Blake
Andrew presented a novel, high-throughput bioreactor platform to model the interface between lung cancer and the systemic immune system, for use in early detection biomarker discovery. He demonstrated the versatility of the bioreactor by presenting images of customisable orientations for co-culture experiments, and results to show the bioreactor is biocompatible and enabled immune cell crosstalk. He also showed changes in populations of human immune cells which occur after contact with lung cancer cell lines, compared to bronchial epithelial cells, which he will explore further in the bioreactor.
