Mission and Vision Statement

MFICM research uses cutting edge analytics to maximise the use of diverse, high-volume data sets and by capturing cancer heterogeneity in time and space in patients receiving active treatment. Integrated Cancer Medicine aims to transform the way the world treats cancer to accelerate cures.

Data collated from hundreds of cancer patients treated on prospective clinical trials with the support of our Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC) is subject to advanced imaging approaches including hyperpolarised MRI, PET and endoscopy to track and monitor cancers including metabolic pharmacodynamic response to trial therapies. Tissues procured in parallel are submitted to the Cancer Molecular Diagnostics Lab (CMDL) for assessment of tumour ‘omics and ‘liquid’ biopsies including ctDNA and circulating tumour cells (CTC). The integration of these data sets alongside clinical data using innovative Cambridge-invented statistical algorithms into a single platform will enable a personalised assessment of each cancer to build appropriate stratification, treatment and prediction of disease response and resistance.

This new treatment paradigm is already being applied to manage patients with breast cancer as part of the PARTNER and PARTNERING clinical trials and within the Personalised Breast Cancer Programme, the OV04/06 translational study in Ovarian cancer, the WIRE Renal Cancer trial, the DIRECT trial for patients with high-grade B cell lymphoma and the ATRiUM pancreatic cancer trial.

The development of precision cancer medicine strategies within the wider CRUK Cambridge Centre Programmes will be supported by the Integrated Cancer Medicine Shared Infrastructure-Resource with the overarching aim of eventually developing a standard of precision medicine care for all cancer patients.

Jean Abraham (ICM Co-Leader) states “The MFICM provides a community and collegiate environment where cancer scientists, clinicians, computer scientists, computational biologists, mathematicians and many other disciplines come together to focus their time, effort and energy in improving our understanding of breast cancer and its treatment. The community is driven by a patient-centred focus and with the ultimate aim of real-time integration of their knowledge and innovation into clinical practice and through the development of novel clinical trials. We aim to provide the best possible cancer treatment strategies and improved cure rates for patients.”