Early Detection of Cancer

Key genomic events in cancer happen many years before it is diagnosed. There is a complex relationship between inflammatory conditions, genomic alterations, and cancer risk. It is very difficult to tell when the relevant mutations happened in most cases. If we had a better understanding of how early mutations contributed to the resulting cancer, and when they occurred, we might be able to develop better screening procedures that made use of genomics.

In this project, we are comparing genomes of oesophageal cancer and early-stage Barrett’s oesophagus using whole genome sequencing and machine learning. This should help us to develop a picture of what the early risk factors might be, and how new whole-genome sequencing could help early detection.