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We are part of the King’s Cancer Prevention Group, who recently moved to King’s, and are led by Professor Peter Sasieni. We are comprised of three groups: The Cancer Screening and Statistics Unit, the Cancer Behavioural Science Unit and the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU). Our core funding is provided by Cancer Research UK.

The Cancer Research UK & King’s College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU), funded by CRUK, specialises in research to advance cancer prevention, early diagnosis and screening.

We perform research on efficacy, cost-effectiveness and technologies to improve existing and establish new screening programmes.

Our portfolio of both secondary (hospital) and primary (community) care trials includes: 

  • Multi-centre international randomised controlled trials of medicinal prevention of cancer often using drug repurposing;
  • Pragmatic trials of screening and diagnostic interventions;
  • Trials of behavioural interventions in cancer prevention and screening;
  • Trials of diagnostic/screening devices;
  • Long-term follow-up of participants;
  • Bio-specimen collections for biomarker discovery and validation.

The CPTU core team provides a quality management system, statistical support and a wealth of experience in the design, running and governance of national and international phase III clinical trials in cancer prevention and screening. It also provides mentoring, training and management for trial-specific staff. The core team also works on new advances in terms of design and infrastructure to improve the efficiency of our trials. 

The CPTU offers specialist advice to trial specific staff, collaborators and participating centres on national and international standards for the conduct of clinical research. This includes:

  • A quality management system;
  • Auditing;
  • Information governance advice;
  • Training and continuous professional development
  • Statistical design and analysis;
  • Management operations;
  • Patient and public involvement;
  • Database/electronic data capture infrastructure;
  • Long-term follow-up of patients

CPTU Services

If you wish to have CPTU as your official trials unit for a study, we will provide oversight of the main trial activities, and also provide specific resource services as requested, which may include:

Trial design, risk assessment, costings, protocol development, obtaining approvals (MHRA, REC, HRA, CAG), regulatory and ethics submissions, statistical design and analysis, study oversight, data management, database development and CRF design, randomisation and unblinding, patient and public involvement, IMP management, trial committee set-up and management, and recruitment of study staff. 

See more about us here

Collaborating with CPTU

If you are interested in seeking our advice or collaborating with us on a study, please get in touch by phone or email. We recommend making contact at an early stage and preferably at the point of grant application development. By contacting us early, this will enable you to take full advantage of our wealth of experience and expertise, and increases the likelihood of a successful application.

Submit a collaboration request

Awards

  • CRUK Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU) Core funding award - CRUK CRC Clinical Trials Unit – renewing Program Award October 2017

Publications

    Activities

    Patient in bed
    Cancer trials at King's receives £3.1 million in funding

    Two major clinical trials supported by Peter Sasieni, Professor of Cancer Prevention at King’s, has received £3.1 million in funding by Yorkshire Cancer Research.

    Logo for the BEST3 trial. The words best3 on red oval which gradually fades out from the left.
    Cytosponge-trefoil factor 3 versus usual care to identify Barrett's oesophagus in a primary care setting

    Treatment of dysplastic Barrett's oesophagus prevents progression to adenocarcinoma; however, the optimal diagnostic strategy for Barrett's oesophagus is unclear. The Cytosponge-trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) is a non-endoscopic test for Barrett's oesophagus. The aim of this study was to investigate whether offering this test to patients on medication for gastro-oesophageal reflux would increase the detection of Barrett's oesophagus compared with standard management.

    NHS Galleri Trial

    The CPTU is selected to be the clinical trials unit for the NHS Galleri randomised controlled trial of the Galleri multi-cancer early detection test in a population screening setting.

    External staff/PhD students

    External staff

    Benoit Aigret

    Benoit has worked with Professor Sasieni at Cancer Research UK since 2002, when he participated in the set-up of the International Breast cancer Intervention Study II (IBIS-II), a large multi-centre phase III trial investigating chemoprevention. Benoit became Head of Operations for the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU) at Queen Mary University of London in 2006, when Professors Cuzick and Sasieni received the first Cancer Research UK Programme grant to set-up a unit specialising in cancer prevention and screening. Since July 2019, Benoit has been supporting the CPTU in a Clinical Project Management Consultant role, focusing on strategic planning of cross-functional teams, facilities, and services to ensure that the evolving needs of the researchers and regulatory requirements are continually met. In particular, Benoit provides support to the CPTU team and investigators to facilitate the development of high-quality clinical trials by supporting new funding applications, advising on trial operations, resource requirements, preparing costing, reviewing and negotiating new contracts.

    Francesca Pesola

    Dr Pesola is a Senior Statistician working at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine (QMUL) and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences (KCL), where she collaborates with colleagues from the Cancer Prevention Group.

    Dr Pesola is a professional member of the Royal Statistical Society (Chartered Statistician, CStat) with over 10 years of experience both in academia and in government. She has worked on a variety of areas ranging from mental health to public health. She has extensive experience of designing and analysing data from randomised controlled trials as well as epidemiological studies.

    Annie Lincoln

    Annie Lincoln is a post graduate research (PGR) student within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine and School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences with a doctoral fellowship from King’s College London. Annie has a background in hereditary cancer clinical research and has extended this interest into her post graduate studies. As part of graduate research, she will be looking at faecal immunochemistry testing (FIT) screening in a UK population of Lynch Syndrome patients.

    Roberta Maroni – BEST3 Statistician

    Roberta Maroni joined Professor Sasieni’s team to work as a statistician on the BEST3 trial, managed by the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, which aims at improving detection of Barrett’s Oesophagus by means of the Cytosponge™. In the past, she collaborated with the National Facial and Oral Research Centre (NFORC), she worked on the iTACTIC trial, and she used to be a part of the Policy Research Unit on cancer awareness, screening and early diagnosis at Queen Mary University, led by Professor Stephen Duffy, for which she performed an evaluation of the national breast screening programme and an assessment of second timed appointments for non-attenders of breast screening.

    Magnesh Thorat

    Mangesh joined the Centre for Cancer Prevention at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, London, in 2009, to continue his work on breast cancer biomarkers, with special focus on DCIS, a pre-invasive stage of breast cancer. He is specifically trying to identify biomarkers that will allow us to differentiate between DCIS that recurs or progresses to invasive breast cancer and DCIS that does not. This research will eventually allow us to spare a large majority of DCIS patients from adjuvant treatments like radiotherapy and Tamoxifen and thereby avoid side effects of these treatments. Mangesh was awarded a PhD by the University of London in January 2016 for this work. His other research interests include cancer epidemiology and prevention, particularly the role of aspirin in cancer prevention; prognostic biomarkers in prostate cancer; and clinical trials in breast cancer. Mangesh serves on the steering or data monitoring committees of several multi-national clinical trials. He also serves as the Deputy Director (Clinical) of the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (King's Health Partners) and holds a Visiting Senior Lecturer position at King's College London.

    Jane Warwick

    Jane has over 25 years' experience in medical statistics, epidemiology and clinical trials. Her first post in medical statistics was at the Cancer Research Campaign Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham where she specialised in gynaecological oncology and developed a particular interest in ovarian cancer. After completing her PhD in 2001 she joined the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Prevention, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London where for ten years she worked with Professor Stephen Duffy on the evaluation of breast screening programmes and breast cancer aetiology and with Professor Jack Cuzick on breast cancer prevention and models to predict breast cancer risk. In 2011 she moved to Imperial Clinical Trials Unit, Imperial College London, where she led the statistics team and gained further experience of Phase II and III trials in a variety of clinical areas, including cancer, HIV, mental health, vascular surgery and critical care, and of Bayesian methods for adaptive trial designs. Her contribution to the IBIS project, specifically the design and analysis of the mammographic density sub-studies and the development of the methodology for incorporating mammographic density into the IBIS breast cancer risk evaluation model) was recognised by Cancer Research UK in 2014 when the IBIS trials team (led by Professor Jack Cuzick) was awarded the Translational Cancer Research Prize. In the same year, Jane moved to Warwick CTU, where she gained further leadership experience and worked predominantly on trials in mental health and orthopaedic surgery, gaining promotion to Professor of Clinical Trials Statistics in June 2018. Most recently Jane has joined the CPTU team as statistical consultant, where she hopes to use her wealth of experience to facilitate the development, delivery, analysis and publication of high-quality clinical trials.

    Publications

      Activities

      Patient in bed
      Cancer trials at King's receives £3.1 million in funding

      Two major clinical trials supported by Peter Sasieni, Professor of Cancer Prevention at King’s, has received £3.1 million in funding by Yorkshire Cancer Research.

      Logo for the BEST3 trial. The words best3 on red oval which gradually fades out from the left.
      Cytosponge-trefoil factor 3 versus usual care to identify Barrett's oesophagus in a primary care setting

      Treatment of dysplastic Barrett's oesophagus prevents progression to adenocarcinoma; however, the optimal diagnostic strategy for Barrett's oesophagus is unclear. The Cytosponge-trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) is a non-endoscopic test for Barrett's oesophagus. The aim of this study was to investigate whether offering this test to patients on medication for gastro-oesophageal reflux would increase the detection of Barrett's oesophagus compared with standard management.

      NHS Galleri Trial

      The CPTU is selected to be the clinical trials unit for the NHS Galleri randomised controlled trial of the Galleri multi-cancer early detection test in a population screening setting.

      External staff/PhD students

      External staff

      Benoit Aigret

      Benoit has worked with Professor Sasieni at Cancer Research UK since 2002, when he participated in the set-up of the International Breast cancer Intervention Study II (IBIS-II), a large multi-centre phase III trial investigating chemoprevention. Benoit became Head of Operations for the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU) at Queen Mary University of London in 2006, when Professors Cuzick and Sasieni received the first Cancer Research UK Programme grant to set-up a unit specialising in cancer prevention and screening. Since July 2019, Benoit has been supporting the CPTU in a Clinical Project Management Consultant role, focusing on strategic planning of cross-functional teams, facilities, and services to ensure that the evolving needs of the researchers and regulatory requirements are continually met. In particular, Benoit provides support to the CPTU team and investigators to facilitate the development of high-quality clinical trials by supporting new funding applications, advising on trial operations, resource requirements, preparing costing, reviewing and negotiating new contracts.

      Francesca Pesola

      Dr Pesola is a Senior Statistician working at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine (QMUL) and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences (KCL), where she collaborates with colleagues from the Cancer Prevention Group.

      Dr Pesola is a professional member of the Royal Statistical Society (Chartered Statistician, CStat) with over 10 years of experience both in academia and in government. She has worked on a variety of areas ranging from mental health to public health. She has extensive experience of designing and analysing data from randomised controlled trials as well as epidemiological studies.

      Annie Lincoln

      Annie Lincoln is a post graduate research (PGR) student within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine and School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences with a doctoral fellowship from King’s College London. Annie has a background in hereditary cancer clinical research and has extended this interest into her post graduate studies. As part of graduate research, she will be looking at faecal immunochemistry testing (FIT) screening in a UK population of Lynch Syndrome patients.

      Roberta Maroni – BEST3 Statistician

      Roberta Maroni joined Professor Sasieni’s team to work as a statistician on the BEST3 trial, managed by the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, which aims at improving detection of Barrett’s Oesophagus by means of the Cytosponge™. In the past, she collaborated with the National Facial and Oral Research Centre (NFORC), she worked on the iTACTIC trial, and she used to be a part of the Policy Research Unit on cancer awareness, screening and early diagnosis at Queen Mary University, led by Professor Stephen Duffy, for which she performed an evaluation of the national breast screening programme and an assessment of second timed appointments for non-attenders of breast screening.

      Magnesh Thorat

      Mangesh joined the Centre for Cancer Prevention at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, London, in 2009, to continue his work on breast cancer biomarkers, with special focus on DCIS, a pre-invasive stage of breast cancer. He is specifically trying to identify biomarkers that will allow us to differentiate between DCIS that recurs or progresses to invasive breast cancer and DCIS that does not. This research will eventually allow us to spare a large majority of DCIS patients from adjuvant treatments like radiotherapy and Tamoxifen and thereby avoid side effects of these treatments. Mangesh was awarded a PhD by the University of London in January 2016 for this work. His other research interests include cancer epidemiology and prevention, particularly the role of aspirin in cancer prevention; prognostic biomarkers in prostate cancer; and clinical trials in breast cancer. Mangesh serves on the steering or data monitoring committees of several multi-national clinical trials. He also serves as the Deputy Director (Clinical) of the Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (King's Health Partners) and holds a Visiting Senior Lecturer position at King's College London.

      Jane Warwick

      Jane has over 25 years' experience in medical statistics, epidemiology and clinical trials. Her first post in medical statistics was at the Cancer Research Campaign Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham where she specialised in gynaecological oncology and developed a particular interest in ovarian cancer. After completing her PhD in 2001 she joined the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Prevention, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London where for ten years she worked with Professor Stephen Duffy on the evaluation of breast screening programmes and breast cancer aetiology and with Professor Jack Cuzick on breast cancer prevention and models to predict breast cancer risk. In 2011 she moved to Imperial Clinical Trials Unit, Imperial College London, where she led the statistics team and gained further experience of Phase II and III trials in a variety of clinical areas, including cancer, HIV, mental health, vascular surgery and critical care, and of Bayesian methods for adaptive trial designs. Her contribution to the IBIS project, specifically the design and analysis of the mammographic density sub-studies and the development of the methodology for incorporating mammographic density into the IBIS breast cancer risk evaluation model) was recognised by Cancer Research UK in 2014 when the IBIS trials team (led by Professor Jack Cuzick) was awarded the Translational Cancer Research Prize. In the same year, Jane moved to Warwick CTU, where she gained further leadership experience and worked predominantly on trials in mental health and orthopaedic surgery, gaining promotion to Professor of Clinical Trials Statistics in June 2018. Most recently Jane has joined the CPTU team as statistical consultant, where she hopes to use her wealth of experience to facilitate the development, delivery, analysis and publication of high-quality clinical trials.

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      If you are interested in seeking our advice or collaborating with us on a study, please get in touch by phone or email. We recommend making contact at an early stage and preferably at the point of grant application development. By contacting us early, this will enable you to take full advantage of our wealth of experience and expertise, and increases the likelihood of a successful application.

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