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Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine - Barts and The London

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  5. Cancer Prevention

Cancer Prevention

We focus on identifying and validating interventions for reducing the risk of cancer. Much of the work involves medical interventions.

The work has two main aspects – more accurately identifying individuals at high risk of particular cancers and finding effective, minimally toxic prophylactic interventions, usually by conducting randomised clinical trials.

Breast cancer has been a major area of work. We are studying the role of mammographic breast density as a risk factor and exploring the best way to measure it and are refining our risk assessment programme, which is widely used by genetics counsellors.

We have conducted two large international trials evaluating tamoxifen and anastrozole in high risk women and are embarking on a new trial evaluating metformin, zoledronic acid and extended aromatase inhibitor treatment to reduce late recurrence in breast cancer survivors.

In prostate cancer we are evaluating prognostic markers for separating indolent from aggressive cancers and the role of aspirin and vitamin D in slowing the progression of apparently indolent cancers.

In cervix cancer we have pioneered the use of HPV testing in screening and are involved in the evaluation of HPV vaccination.

We are currently embarking on the prevention of colorectal cancer in individuals with large adenomas.

Main ongoing projects include:

A full list with details can be found under Research Projects.