Research

Biobanking Director:

• Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund Tissue Bank
• Barts Pancreas Tissue Bank
• Cancer Tissue Bank

Clinical trials:

• STARPAC (Study Chairman)
• PRICKLE (Independent Reviewer)
• RADIOCYST (DMC)
• GAP (DMC)
• ADEPTS
• STARPAC2
• UKEDI

My translational research interests include stromal biology of pancreatic cancer, biomarker discovery, and investigations into liver metastasis and duodenal cancers (UKDCSG). My clinical interests include clinical trials and epidemiology in patients with hepato-biliary-pancreatic disorders, surgical development, innovative surgical techniques, risk-assessment and quality improvement. My clinical practice is at the Barts and the London HPB Centre at the Royal London Hospital of Barts Health NHS Trust. My recent work according to research areas is listed below:

Stromal biology of pancreatic cancer

Inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity in cancer-associated fibroblasts of human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Neuzillet C, Tijeras-Raballand A, Ragulan C et al. J Pathol (2018) 248(1):51-65. PMID: 30575030

Stromal SPOCK1 supports invasive pancreatic cancer growth. Veenstra VL, Damhofer H, Waasdorp C, Steins A, Kocher HM, Medema JP, van Laarhoven HW, Bijlsma MF. Mol Oncol (2017) 11(8):1050-1064. PMID: 28486750

PAK4 interacts with p85 alpha: implications for pancreatic cancer cell migration. King H, Thillai K, Whale A, Arumugam P, Eldaly H, Kocher HM, Wells CM. Sci Rep (2017) 7:42575. PMID: 28205613

Expression of polymeric immunoglobulin receptor and stromal activity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Arumugam P, Bhattacharya S, Chin-Aleong J, Capasso M, Kocher HM. Pancreatology (2017) 17(2):295-302. PMID: 28173980

Biomarker discovery

PET-PANC: multicentre prospective diagnostic accuracy and health economic analysis study of the impact of combined modality 18fluorine-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography with computed tomography scanning in the diagnosis and management of pancreatic cancer. Ghaneh P, Hanson R, Titman A et al. Health Technol Assess (2018) 22(2) 1-114. PMID: 29402376

ADAM12 is a circulating marker for stromal activation in pancreatic cancer and predicts response to chemotherapy. Veenstra VL, Damhofer H, Waasdorp C et al. Oncogenesis (2018) 7(2) 87. PMID: 30442938

Predicting complications in hepatic resection for colorectal liver metastasis: the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio. McCluney SJ, Giakoustidis AA, Segler A et al. ANZ J Surg (2018) 88(2) E782-E786. PMID: 30014560

Neutrophil: Lymphocyte ratio as a method of predicting complications following hepatic resection for colorectal liver metastasis. McCluney SJ, Giakoustidis A, Segler A et al. J Surg Oncol (2018) 117(2) 1058-1065. PMID: 29448304

Biobanking

The Pancreatic Expression Database: 2018 update. Marzec J, Dayem Ullah AZ, Pirrò S, Gadaleta E, Crnogorac-Jurcevic T, Lemoine NR, Kocher HM, Chelala C. Nucleic Acids Res (2018) 46(D1):D1107-D1110. PMID: 29059374

Pancreatic cancer tissue banks: where are we heading? Balarajah V, Ambily A, Dayem Ullah AZ, Imrali A, Dowe T, Al-Sarireh B, Abu Hilal M, Davidson BR, Soonawalla Z, Metcalfe M, Chin Aleong JA, Chelala C, Kocher HM. Future Oncol (2016) 12(23):2661-2663. PMID: 27541064

Model systems

Pancreatic Cancer Organotypic Models. Coetzee A, Grose R, Kocher H. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol (2019) 10.1007/82_2019_155. PMID: 30790075

Clinical guidelines

Recommendations from the United European Gastroenterology evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis and therapy of chronic pancreatitis. Dominguez-Munoz JE, Drewes AM, Lindkvist B, Ewald N, Czakó L, Rosendahl J, Löhr JM; HaPanEU/UEG Working Group. Pancreatology (2018) 18(8):847-854. PMID: 30344091

Unravelling the pharmacologic opportunities and future directions for targeted therapies in gastro-intestinal cancers part 2: Neuroendocrine tumours, hepatocellular carcinoma, and gastro-intestinal stromal tumours. Neuzillet C, de Mestier L, Rousseau B et al. Pharmacol Ther (2018) 181(2) 49-75. PMID: 28723416

Unravelling the pharmacologic opportunities and future directions for targeted therapies in gastro-intestinal cancers Part 1: GI carcinomas. Neuzillet C, Rousseau B, Kocher H, Bourget P, Tournigand C. Pharmacol Ther (2017) 174:145-172. PMID: 28223233

United European Gastroenterology evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis and therapy of chronic pancreatitis (HaPanEU). Löhr JM, Dominguez-Munoz E, Rosendahl J, Besselink M, Mayerle J, Lerch MM, Haas S, Akisik F, Kartalis N, Iglesias-Garcia J, Keller J, Boermeester M, Werner J, Dumonceau JM, Fockens P, Drewes A, Ceyhan G, Lindkvist B, Drenth J, Ewald N, Hardt P, de Madaria E, Witt H, Schneider A, Manfredi R, Brøndum FJ, Rudolf S, Bollen T, Bruno M; HaPanEU/UEG Working Group. United European Gastroenterol J (2017) 5(2):153-199. PMID: 28344786 

Clinical care and patient pathways

Factors affecting length of stay after percutaneous biliary interventions. Roy M, Kyaw Tun J, Banerjee A et al. Br J Radiol (2019) 92(1096):20180814. PMID: 30359118

Solid pseudopapillary tumour of the pancreas: clinicopathological analysis. McCluney S, Wijesuriya N, Sheshappanavar V et al. ANZ J Surg (2018) 88(9):891-895. PMID: 29316119

Complications of biliary-enteric anastomoses. Kadaba RS, Bowers KA, Khorsandi S, Hutchins RR, Abraham AT, Sarker SJ, Bhattacharya S, Kocher HM. Ann R Coll Surg Engl (2017) 99(3):210-215. PMID: 27659373

Role of laparoscopy in hepatobiliary malignancies. Arumugam P, Balarajah V, Watt J, Abraham AT, Bhattacharya S, Kocher HM. Indian J Med Res (2016) 143(4):414-9. PMID: 27377496

Epidemiological studies

Resection rate, hospital procedure volume and survival in pancreatic cancer patients in England: Population-based study, 2005-2009. Coupland VH, Konfortion J, Jack RH, Allum W, Kocher HM, Riaz SP, Lüchtenborg M, Møller H. Eur J Surg Oncol (2016) 42(2):190-6. PMID: 26705143

Outcome after surgical resection for duodenal adenocarcinoma in the UK. Solaini L, Jamieson NB, Metcalfe M, Abu Hilal M, Soonawalla Z, Davidson BR, McKay C, Kocher HM; UK Duodenal Cancer Study Group. Br J Surg (2015) 102(6):676-81. PMID: 25776995

Time and deprivation trends in incidence of primary liver cancer subtypes in England. Konfortion J, Coupland VH, Kocher HM, Allum W, Grocock MJ, Jack RH. J Eval Clin Pract (2014) 20(4):498-504. PMID: 24902884

Other Activities

NHS roles:      

• Research Director, Clinical Board of Surgery, Barts Health NHS Trust (2018-)
• NIHR Research for Patient Benefit, London Research Advisory Group (2018-)
• MDT Lead, Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic MDT, Barts Health NHS Trust (2015-)
• Lead for Pancreatic Cancer, London Cancer, UCLP (2014-)
• HPB Clinical Reference Group, NHS England (2017-)
• Cross-CRG, NIHR Working Group, NHS England (2017-)

External roles:

• Scientific Advisory Committee, Worldwide Cancer Research (2016-)
• Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Pancreatic Cancer Action UK (2015-)
• Medical Advisory Board, Pancreatic Cancer UK (2016-)
• Research Lead, The London Clinic (2019-)
• Chair, French NCI-InCa PAIR Programme for pancreatic cancer (2017-)
• Site reviewer, Singapore A*STAR Programme on Liver Cancer (2016-)

Major Funding

• 2019-2022 - Medical Research Council, 'Dissecting the role of extra centrosomes-induced exosome secretion in PDAC microenvironment'
• 2019-2024 - Medical Research Council, 'Phase IIb randomised clinical trial repurposing ATRA as a stromal targeting agent in a novel drug combination for pancreatic cancer (STAR-PAC2),' £1,417,355
• 2019-2022- Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, ‘The role of T-cells within tertiary lymphoid structures of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma,’ £197,313
• 2018-2021 - Cancer Research UK, 'Anti-tumour specificity and functionality of monoclonal antibodies derived from single lesional B cells from ectopic germinal centres in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma'
• 2016-2019 - Medical Research Council, 'Development of an effective therapeutic regimen for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer using a novel immunotherapeutic agent,' £577,000
• 2005-2010 - NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre (Leeds), 'The role of tumour cell and stromal cell interactions in modulating the invasive behaviour of pancreatic cancer,' £874,000

Recent Publications

Phase I clinical trial repurposing all-trans retinoic acid as a stromal targeting agent for pancreatic cancer Kocher HM, Basu B, Froeling FEM et al. Nature Communications (2020) 11(7)

Biliary Tract Cancer Kocher HM, Yip VS, Abraham AT (2020) (10) 172-182

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for the non-invasive detection of pancreatic cancer from urine Daulton E, Wicaksono AN, Tiele A et al. Talanta (2021) 221(1)

CRABP2 and FABP5 expression levels in diseased and normal pancreas Hughes CS, ChinAleong JA, Kocher HM Annals of Diagnostic Pathology (2020) 47(7)

High-grade mesenchymal pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma drives stromal deactivation through CSF-1 Steins A, van Mackelenbergh MG, van der Zalm AP et al. EMBO Reports (2020) 21(7)

450 CLONAL DYNAMICS AND CELL-OF-ORIGIN OF NORMAL HEPATOCYTE EXPANSIONS IN HOMEOSTATIC HUMAN LIVERS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH THE BILIARY EPITHELIUM Passman AM, Haughey MJ, Carlotti E et al. Gastroenterology (2020) 158(1) s-1276

CLONAL DYNAMICS AND CELL-OF-ORIGIN OF NORMAL HEPATOCYTE EXPANSIONS IN HOMEOSTATIC HUMAN LIVERS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH THE BILIARY EPITHELIUM Passman AM, Haughey MJ, Carlotti E et al. GASTROENTEROLOGY (2020) 158(11) S1276-S1276
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000540349504191&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=612ae0d773dcbdba3046f6df545e9f6a

Fibronectin acts as a molecular switch to determine SPARC function in pancreatic cancer Munasinghe A, Malik K, Mohamedi F et al. Cancer Letters (2020) 477(7) 88-96

A Novel Scaffold-Based Hybrid Multicellular Model for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma—Toward a Better Mimicry of the in vivo Tumor Microenvironment Gupta P, Pérez-Mancera PA, Kocher H et al. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (2020) 8(7)

Urine metallomics signature as an indicator of pancreatic cancer. Schilling K, Larner F, Saad A et al. Metallomics: integrated biometal science (2020) (1)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32211672

Team

Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr Dayem Ullah, Dr Francesca Delvecchio, Dr Michelle Goulart, Dr Abigail Coetzee

PhD Students
Mr Vickna Balarajah, Mr Abhirup Banerjee, Mr Gabriel Agguire, Ms Rachel Fincham, Dr Mohammed Zardab, Dr Konstantinos Stasinos, Ms Lavanya Sivapalan, Ms Minal Patel

Tissue Bank staff
Mr Ajith Vajrala,  Ms Christine Hughes, Ms Rhiannon Roberts, Mr Ahmet Imrali, Ms Amina Saad

Biography

I joined the Barts Cancer Institute in February 2005 with the award of National Clinician Scientist Fellowship by the National Institute of Health Research (UK). I completed my MD (Res) at King's College London and general surgical and HPB Surgery training in South-East Thames. I qualified with numerous distinctions, awards and scholarships from University of Mumbai in 1993. I finished my surgical training in Mumbai (KEM Hospital) in 1996, leading to a best thesis award for MS (General Surgery).