Health & Fitness

DOCTORS REWARDED FOR THEIR INNOVATION

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20 January 2009

RIGHT: The pharmacogenetics team are carrying out pioneering research

THE PHARMACOGNETICS team based in the Department of Pathology at Guy's and St Thomas' has won a second successive NHS London innovation award - this time for their pioneering research which looks at improving the success of chemotherapy treatments.

Their work aimed to predict which patients will experience negative effects to 5-flurouracil drugs - a mainstay in chemotherapy medication, especially for gastrointestinal cancer. This significantly reduces the positive impact chemotherapy can achieve in this group of patients.

Once patients are identified then tailor-made regimes can be implemented, which minimise harmful reactions and maximise response to the treatment. Dr Tony Marinaki and Dr Jeremy Sanderson, who run the unit, now hope to develop a clinical service to provide these tests.

Dr Sanderson said: "We were delighted to have been recognised in these awards for what we believe is exciting research. Currently 80,000 people undergo chemotherapy every year in the UK, and a fifth of them will experience problems with toxicity that can lead to treatment failure. These tests provide an opportunity to help thousands of those patients."

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