MRI scanner

Contact

Group lead
Prof Eric Aboagye
+44 (0)20 3313 3759
eric.aboagye@imperial.ac.uk

Cancer Imaging

Dr Laura Kenny describes how imaging is used in oncology, and provides an outline of molecular imaging research in cancer.

Disease areas

What we do

We are involved in the discovery, development and application of imaging methods, mainly positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound (US) for clinical studies of cancer biology, physiology and pharmacology, as well as experimental studies of tumour models. Our aim is to develop methods that will make a significant impact on patient care in the short to medium term; and in the long term train the next generation of imaging scientists.

Why it is important

Our research aims to detect cancer and cancer phenotypes quicker and in a more sensitive way, as well as stratify patients more effectively to therapy, particularly in the context of drug development. The very rapid changes in molecular targets and pathways associated with anti-cancer treatment, evident in days rather than weeks, means that we can in the future detect response to therapy much earlier than current clinical standards of radiological shrinkage. Understanding disease biology in different tumour types will ultimately permit personalised medicine to be delivered to patients in the form of ‘theranostics’ (detect-and-treat).

How it can benefit patients

Our work helps in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of cancer.

Summary of current research

  • Imaging of therapy response - development and application of caspase-3 and nucleoside salvage markers
  • Imaging of cell surface receptors and theranostic (detect & treat) applications - EGFR, SSTR2, HER2, CXCR4
  • Imaging cancer metabolism - fatty acid oxidation, glycogenesis, choline and nucleoside metabolism
  • Novel radiochemistry & radiotracer discovery and translational research
  • Radiomics and machine learning for cancer detection and prognosis.
  • Cancer pharmacology - choline kinase and HDAC6

Connections

Funders
Related Centres
  • Cancer Research UK Imperial Centre
Collaborators
For patients
Clinical trials
  • Development of novel imaging agents including first in man trials
  • Cancer drug development - experimental medicine (Phase I/II)
  • Imaging & molecular biomarker studies
PhD students

When we have funding for PhD studentships, we advertise them through central channels such as Find a PhD. Information is also available on the Surgery and Cancer study page. If no studentships are currently advertised, please get in touch with the group lead with proposed project titles to discuss further. 

Current PhD students:

  • Jin Hui Teh
  • Barbara Dworakowska
  • Michael Komodromos
  • Ben Hunter
  • Sumeet Hindocha
  • Hardeep Kalsi
  • Stanislav Piletsky (Joint with Alan Spivey, Chemistry)
  • Camarie Welgemoed
  • Ala Amgheib
  • Jamie Beaumont
  • Zixuan Yang
  • Marc Boubnovski
  • Kristofer Lindon-Reid
  • Sumran Kukran

Our researchers

Our researchers

Benjamin Hunter

Benjamin Hunter
Honorary Clinical Research Fellow

Mohammed Al Sad

Mohammed Al Sad
NCITA Imaging Repository Developer

Mr Chris Barnes

Mr Chris Barnes
Research Scientist

Tim Hoogenboom

Tim Hoogenboom
Research Sonographer

Xingfeng Li

Xingfeng Li
Research Associate

Cancer Imaging Research Group

                                                            Cancer imaging research group