Oncology

Professor Rosalind (Ros) Eeles trained at Cambridge and St Thomas’ Hospital. Professor Eeles then worked in Clinical Oncology and Cancer Genetics at The Royal Marsden. She spent a year as an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, United States.

Prof Eeles is Professor of Oncogenetics at The Institute of Cancer Research and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology and Cancer Genetics at The Royal Marsden.

Professor Eeles is a clinician as well as a scientist, running a laboratory at The Institute of Cancer Research, London. She is also a radiotherapist treating prostate cancer. She has sat on the Department of Health Genetics Advisory Committee.

Professor Eeles has discovered over three quarters of the genetic variants that increase men's risk of prostate cancer. She has published 392 papers and edited major textbooks on genetic predisposition to cancer.

Her latest book in 2019 is a joint collaboration titled Cancer Screening and Prevention, it has just been nominated for an award by the BMA. Studies and Research Professor Eeles leads the following studies : The UK Genetic Prostate Cancer Study (UKGPCS), the largest prostate cancer genetic study of its kind in the UK, with nearly 200 hospitals.

The international IMPACT study, looking at whether regular screening of men who have mutations in their genes can lead to earlier diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancers. The GENPROS study , follows up men with rare germline mutations including BRCA1, BRCA2, MMR, HOXB13 and other DNA repair gene mutation carriers following their prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.

PROFILE and BARCODE 1

The BARCODE 1 study has been developed to investigate the use of genetic profiling in prostate screening in the general population. This study will recruit 5000 men from the general practice to identify those men at the highest genetic risk of prostate cancer to offer them prostate screening.

BARCODE 2.

Men with advanced prostate cancer undergo rapid genetic testing within the study to identify whether they have a mutation in a DNA repair gene. Men identified with mutations are offered treatment with Carboplatin once they have completed all standard treatments. Platinum-based agents have been shown to be effective treatments for women with ovarian cancer who have a mutation in a DNA repair gene.