Research

My research is focused on Targeted Precision Prevention. This includes population-based genetic testing, mainstreaming genetic testing and precision medicine approaches for risk prediction, population stratification, targeted screening, cancer prevention (including surgical prevention) and management of familial gynaecological cancer. I have a keen research interest in health economic issues related to these areas.

I am Chief Investigator (CI) on PROTECT (PROTECT: Population based Germline testing for Early detection and Cancer Prevention); PROTECTOR (Preventing Ovarian Cancer through early Excision of Tubes and late Ovarian Removal) trial; DETECT-2 (Direct to Patient testing at Cancer diagnosis for Precision Prevention) study; PRESCORES (Prevention of endometrial cancer: Utility scores of risk-reducing strategies); JHCR (Jewish Hereditary Cancer Research); PROMISE Feasibility study (pilot general population testing and personalised ovarian cancer risk prediction study); SIGNPOST (SystematIc GeNetic testing for Personalised Ovarian cancer Therapy) study and RRESDO (study evaluating attitudes towards early salpingectomy) studies; Co-PI of GCaPPS trial (population based BRCA testing RCT in the Jewish population); Co-Lead for UKCOGS (UK COVID and Gynaecological Cancer Study); Co-lead for SURAKSHA- South Asian Breast Cancer Risk Prediction, Genetic testing & Health Management programme. I have worked on ovarian cancer screening trials (UKCTOCS, UKFOCSS and ALDO).

Other Activities

Academic Roles (select):

• Co-Lead Cancer Prevention Unit, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London
• Co-Lead for Cancer Prevention (Theme-1), CRUK Barts Centre, Queen Mary University of London
• NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) Fellow
• Integrated Academic Training Programme Director, London School of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (LSSOG), Health Education England (HEE)
• Lead for the RCOG Advanced Professional Module (APM) in Clinical Research for London
• Specialty Research Lead for Gynaecological Cancer, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), North Thames Clinical Research Network (CRN)
• Honorary Professor, Department of Health Services Research, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Infosys Chair in Oncology, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

Clinical Roles (select):

• Lead Women’s Precision Prevention Service, Barts Health NHS Trust
• Chair London Cancer High Risk Gynaecological Cancer MDT
• North Thames GLH Clinical Lead for Gynaecological Cancer
• Member National Cancer Programme Early Diagnosis Task & Finish group
• Topic Advisor NICE Guideline on Familial Ovarian Cancer
• Deputy Director Gynae-oncology RCOG training programme

Other roles:

• Associate Editor Trials; Guest Editor Cancers (Basel): Special Issue Women’s Cancers Risk
• Member of number of advisory bodies and oversight committees
• President of the European Network of Young Gynaecological Oncologists (ENYGO) and member of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) Council from 2011-2013

Clinical Interests: Ovarian cancer radical debulking surgery, Sentinel node biopsy, Management of women at high risk of gynaecological cancer

Major Funding

• 2022-2026 – GSK and North-East London Cancer Alliance, Direct to Patient testing at Cancer diagnosis for Precision Prevention (DETECT). Role- CI, £1.1M
• 2017-2024 – Barts Charity & Rosetrees Trust, PROTECTOR (Preventing Ovarian Cancer through early Excision of Tubes and late Ovarian Removal), Role – CI, £548,000
• 2019-2024- Barts Charity, Barts Cancer Centre Grant: Cancer Prevention & Risk Management Theme. Role- Co-applicant, £1.8M
• 2019- NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellowship, £20,000 annual
• 2020-2022, BGCS, UKCOGS: UK COVID and Gynaecological Cancer Study. Role- Co-Lead, £29,300
• 2020-2021, CRUK & DBT India, SURAKSHA- South Asian Breast Cancer Risk Prediction, Genetic testing & Health Management. Co-Lead, £30,000.
• 2019- 2023, China Medical Board, Value based genetic testing technology - breast cancer in China. Role - Co-Investigator, $75,000
• 2016-2022- Barts Charity, Systematic genetic testing for ovarian cancer (SIGNPOST). Role- CI, £259,000
• 2019-2023- Cancer Research UK, Targeting the innate immune system in high grade serous ovarian cancer (Canbuild). Role- Co-investigator, £1.95M
• 2017-2020- UKIERI, UK India Education Research Initiative, Investigating BRCAness in epithelial ovarian cancer in India to develop stratified surgical & chemotherapy options. Role- Co-investigator, Partner. £194,405
• 2016–2019- CRUK and The Eve Appeal, PROMISE Feasibility Study Role- CI, £130,000
• 2016-2019- Cancer Research UK, Developing Core Outcomes Sets to standardise reporting in endometrial cancer & atypical endometrial hyperplasia. Role- Co-investigator, £163,790
• 2016-2018- The Eve Appeal, Evaluating cost-effectiveness of population testing for ovarian/breast cancer gene mutations in the general population. Role – CI, £77,340
• 2011-2019- CRUK & The Eve appeal, PROMISE 2016 Programme. Role - Co-investigator, £3M
• 2008-2019- The Eve Appeal, Genetic Cancer Prediction through population Screening (GCaPPS). Acting CI, £561,523
• 2010-2014, NIHR, NIHR Walport Academic Clinical Lecturer Award, £261,800

Recent Publications

Ovarian cancer symptoms in pre-clinical invasive epithelial ovarian cancer – An exploratory analysis nested within the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) Dilley J, Manchanda R, Jacobs I et al. Gynecologic Oncology (2023) (1)

Combined population genomic screening for three high-risk conditions in Australia: a modelling study Lacaze P, Marquina C, Tiller J et al. EClinicalMedicine (2023) (10) 102297

Quality of life after risk-reducing surgery for breast and ovarian cancer prevention: a systematic review and meta-analysis Wei X, Oxley S, Sideris M et al. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2023) 229(7) 388-409.e4

Survival associated with extent of radical hysterectomy in early-stage cervical cancer: a subanalysis of the Surveillance in Cervical CANcer (SCCAN) collaborative study Bizzarri N, Querleu D, Dostálek L et al. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2023) 229(7) 428.e1-428.e12

Patient decision aids in mainstreaming genetic testing for women with ovarian cancer: A prospective cohort study. Sobocan M, Chandrasekaran D, Sideris M et al. BJOG (2023) (2)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37752678

Tumour stage, treatment, and survival of women with high-grade serous tubo-ovarian cancer in UKCTOCS: an exploratory analysis of a randomised controlled trial Menon U, Gentry-Maharaj A, Burnell M et al. The Lancet Oncology (2023) 24(7) 1018-1028

Homologous recombination deficiency in newly diagnosed FIGO stage III/IV high-grade epithelial ovarian cancer: A multi-national observational study Morgan RD, Clamp AR, Barnes BM et al. International Journal of Gynecological Cancer (2023) 33(7) 1253-1259

Co-Creation of Breast Cancer Risk Communication Tools and an Assessment of Risk Factor Awareness: A Qualitative Study of Patients and the Public in India Pillai D, Narayan J, Gentry-Maharaj A et al. Cancers (2023) 15(7)

The avoiding late diagnosis of ovarian cancer (ALDO) project; A pilot national surveillance programme for women with pathogenic germline variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 Philpott S, Raikou M, Manchanda R et al. Journal of Medical Genetics (2023) 60(7) 440-449

Semi-supervised analysis of myeloid and T cell behavior in ex vivo ovarian tumor slices reveals changes in cell motility after treatments Laforêts F, Kotantaki P, Malacrida B et al. iScience (2023) 26(7)

For additional publications, please click here

Team

Academic Clinical Lecturer

• Dr Michail Sideris

Senior Research Fellow

• Li Sun

Clinical Trials Coordinator

• Nicole Itzkowitz
• Hannah Nudds

PhD Students

• Ms Faiza Gaba
• Ms Dhivya Chandrasekaran
• Ms Xia Wei
• Dr Samuel Oxley
• Ms Jyotsna Pundir

Honorary Research Fellows

• Ashwin Kalra
• Monika Sobocan
• Katrina Sarig

Biography

I was appointed as Professor of Gynaecological Oncology at Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London in Sep 2019. I joined Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary, as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in June 2015. I have worked as a consultant Gynaecological Oncologist at Barts Health NHS Trust from June 2015. From 2014- 2015 I worked as a Locum Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist at Barts Health and Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London, UK. I completed a PhD in gynaecological oncology at UCL, followed by a NIHR ACL Fellowship and subspecialty training in gynaecological oncology from UCLH and Bart's Hospital.

I am Co-Lead for Cancer Prevention Unit, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary; and Co-Lead for Cancer Prevention (Theme-1), CRUK Barts Centre. I was awarded an NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellowship in March 2019. I am Chief Investigator (CI) on PROTECT (PROTECT: Population based Germline testing for Early detection and Cancer Prevention); PROTECTOR (Preventing Ovarian Cancer through early Excision of Tubes and late Ovarian Removal) trial; DETECT-2 (Direct to Patient testing at Cancer diagnosis for Precision Prevention) study; PRESCORES (Prevention of endometrial cancer: Utility scores of risk-reducing strategies); JHCR (Jewish Hereditary Cancer Research); PROMISE Feasibility study (pilot general population testing and personalised ovarian cancer risk prediction study); SIGNPOST (SystematIc GeNetic testing for Personalised Ovarian cancer Therapy) study and RRESDO (study evaluating attitudes towards early salpingectomy) studies; Co-PI of GCaPPS trial (population based BRCA testing RCT in the Jewish population); Co-Lead for UKCOGS (UK COVID and Gynaecological Cancer Study); Co-lead for SURAKSHA- South Asian Breast Cancer Risk Prediction, Genetic testing & Health Management programme. I have worked on ovarian cancer screening trials (UKCTOCS, UKFOCSS and ALDO).

I lead the Barts Health Women’s Precision Prevention Service, Chair the London Cancer High Risk Gynaecological Cancer MDT, Member National Cancer Programme Early Diagnosis Task & Finish group, Topic Advisor (Clinical Lead) for the NICE Guideline on Familial Ovarian Cancer, and Clinical Lead for Gynaecological Cancer North Thames GLH. I am scientific advisor to BRCA Umbrella and GO Girls, Chair the Independent Advisory Committee of the Mermaid Project (Demark) and serve on number of oversight committees.

I am actively involved in gynaecological oncology training issues. I helped develop and establish ENYGO (European Network of Young Gynaecological Oncologists) from its inception and have led/undertaken a number of initiatives for European and International trainees in gynaecological oncology. I have served as the president of the European Network of young Gynaecological Oncologists (ENYGO) and a member of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) council (2011-2013). I am the Integrated Academic Training Programme Director and lead for the RCOG Advanced Professional Module (APM) in Clinical Research for London Specialty School of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Health Education England. I am the deputy director of the Barts Health RCOG gynaecological oncology training programme and Mentor for the IGCS Gynecologic Oncology Global Curriculum & Mentorship Program.

Previous posts

• Sep 2021 – Feb 2022 - Director Graduate Studies, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London
• June 2015- Sep 2019 - Clinical Senior Lecturer, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London
• March 2014-May 2015 - Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist at Barts Hospital & Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London
• Feb 2010-Feb 2014 - NIHR Walport Clinical Lecturer & Sub-Specialty trainee Gynaecological Oncology (University College London Hospital, Bart’s Hospital, University College London)
• Feb 2007-Jan 2010 - Clinical Research Fellow, Gynaecological Oncology (University College London)
• Sep 2001-Jan 2007 - Specialist Registrar Obstetrics & Gynaecology East of England Training Programme (Cambridge rotation)
• July 2000-July 2001 - Indian Council Medical Research Fellowship, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India
• July 1993-Oct 1999 - Junior and Senior Resident Obstetrics & Gynaecology (6 year training programme), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India

Education & Qualifications

• 2014- CCT in Gynaecological Oncology and CCT in Obstetrics & Gynaecology
• 2014- BSCCP accreditation in Colposcopy: BSCCP
• 2013- PhD (Gynaecological Oncology): University College London, UK
• 2011- NIHR Leadership Programme for Trainees: Ashridge Business School, UK
• 2005- MRCOG : Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG), UK
• 1996- MD (Obstetrics & Gynaecology): All India Institute of medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, India
• 1993- M.B.B.S : All India Institute of medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, India