Pancreatology

Entry requirements

For full entry requirement details, please see the course page on the University website.

Months of entry

Anytime

Course content

The Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine is the centre for large European pancreas studies aimed at examining the benefit of chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of patients who have undergone surgery to remove pancreas cancer tissue.

Pancreatology is one of Liverpool’s recognised strengths with scientific expertise in Pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis and strong clinical and science leadership.

Research themes

Our research themes include:

• Clinical trials aimed at determining the overall benefits of current treatments and evaluating the benefits of newly emerging treatments for pancreatic cancer. The Division of Surgery and Oncology is the centre for large European pancreas studies including the ESPAC clinical trials aimed at examining the benefit of chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy (the combined use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy) in the treatment of patients who have undergone surgery to remove pancreas cancer tissue. There are major clinical trials in advanced pancreatic cancer (such as Gem-Cap) and developmental trials focusing on new biological agents such as the use of targeted super-antibodies and gene therapy. In the palliative care setting we are at the forefront of assessing and optimising novel methods of symptom and pain control. These and other trials that are available to patients at Liverpool will hopefully improve our understanding of the currently available treatments for pancreas cancer
• Development and Co-ordination of the world's largest collection of families with Hereditary Pancreatitis and Familial Pancreas Cancer. Researchers in the department are currently working with these families to identify the underlying genetic cause of cancer in patients where the disease is inherited. In young patients with Hereditary Pancreatitis and Idiopathic Pancreatitis we are trialling novel treatments to inhibit or minimize the frequency or severity of the attacks
• Identification of novel drug targets or diagnostic markers for pancreatic cancer. In an attempt to identify suitable drug targets or diagnostic markers for pancreatic adenocarcinoma, we have begun a systematic comparison of protein expression profiles from highly purified specimens of pancreatic adenocarcinoma and corresponding normal tissue. We have established the feasibility of the approach of purification of normal and cancer cells of pancreas by laser capture microdissection followed by visualisation of proteins by two dimensional gel electrophoresis and have identified several proteins whose expression is abnormally high or abnormally low in pancreatic cancer cells. Validation and follow-up of these proteins is ongoing
• Increasing the efficacy of currently used chemotherapeutic drugs for treating pancreatic cancer. Given the chemo-resistant nature of pancreatic cancer, we are investigating whether combining chemotherapy with other forms of therapy will more potently kill pancreatic cancer cells. We grow pancreatic cancer cells in the laboratory and investigate what factors make them more susceptible to drugs that could be offered to patients. In this way novel combinations of drugs have been identified which are more effective than the drugs used separately, for example inhibitors of the protein Hsp90 increase the sensitivity of the cancer cells to the commonly used chemotherapeutic 5-fluorouracil.