The Skin Cancer Programme
Led by Dr Girish Patel, the Skin Cancer Programme uses skin cancer stem cell models developed in the lab to find new ways to prevent, detect, predict outcome and develop novel therapies for all cancers types.
One in five individuals will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. Over the last decade skin cancer has increased by 34-55%, compared to a rise of 3-6% in all other cancers. This year-on-year increase is true for all three common skin cancers: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma.
Human skin cancer samples from patients have enabled the group to define human cancer stem cells. As cancer stem cells have the capacity to drive growth, the group is looking to selectively kill cancer stem cells and so potentially cure cancer.