In a recent seminar, two leading experts discussed how research and improved treatments can help reduce the burden of lung cancer.

The seminar hosted by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust as part of the AHSC Seminar Series, can be viewed in the videos below.

Professor Elio Riboli, Director of the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, spoke about the link between smoking and lung cancer, and some of his recent research indicating that smoking causes permanent alternations to a smoker’s genetic makeup which dramatically increase lung cancer risk. He also highlighted the fact that more women across the Western wold are being diagnosed with lung cancer, whilst the rates in men are remaining relatively the same or dipping slightly year-to-year.

Dr Sanjay Popat, Consultant Thoracic Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Reader in Cancer Medicine at Imperial, spoke about lung cancer treatment, which has been transformed in recent years thanks to a host of promising new treatments and drugs. This has led to some patients with advanced lung cancer living relatively normal lives for years beyond their diagnosis, which before such advances would have been completely unheard of. Despite many promising breakthroughs in this field however, Dr Popat also explained there are still significant challenges in treating this aggressive disease. 

This seminar was the first event in the 2017 AHSC seminar series - themed lunchtime lectures that are open to the general public, along with staff and students from NHS Trusts and Imperial College London.
The seminars aim to raise awareness of the Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC).

The AHSC  is a partnership between Imperial College London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust which aims to advance medicine and improve the quality of life of NHS patients, and patients around the world by taking research discoveries and putting them into practice in healthcare as quickly as possible by introducing new therapies and techniques. 

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust joined the Imperial College AHSC last year and both are hosting a number of seminars this year.

The next seminar, 'The Role of the Microbiome in Gastrointestinal Cancers', featuring Professor Elaine Holmes and Professor Julian Teare, will take place on  Monday 27 March at The Royal Marsden from 12:30pm-1:30pm.Register for your free ticket here: goo.gl/WJrOUl