Team Womb to be presented with prestigious AACR award for Team Science
The ‘Team Womb’ collective, headed by Professor Emma Crosbie from Manchester Cancer Research Centre and The University of Manchester, have been awarded for the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Team Science Award for their work on Lynch-syndrome associated endometrial cancer. They will receive this award at the 2024 AACR Annual Meeting on Sunday 7th April.
In partnership with the Eli Lilly and Co., AACR founded this prestigious award in 2006 to recognise the growing importance of interdisciplinary teams in the understanding of cancer and translating research through to clinical care.
Annually, this award recognises ‘outstanding interdisciplinary research’ teams for their ‘innovative and meritorious science’ that has ‘advanced or may advance our fundamental knowledge of cancer, or has applied existing knowledge to advancing the detection, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of cancer’.
I believe that this team exemplify true team science, bring together an interdisciplinary team of academics, clinicians and healthcare staff from across medicine, oncology, pathology, health economics and behavioural science. Within this nomination I highlight their exceptional and practice changing work within detection, alongside several outstanding current and future projects they have in their portfolio.
Dr Patricia M. LoRusso
2024 – 25 AACR President
Manchester’s ‘Team Womb’ led a research programme that identified significant gaps in knowledge about Lynch syndrome-associated endometrial cancer. They found a lack of clinical guidelines and inconsistent delivery of care across the UK.
They conducted the first prospective study testing endometrial cancer for Lynch syndrome and ascertained the prospective healthcare costs and acceptability to patients of different strategies of testing for the syndrome.
The team showed that 3% of endometrial cancers are caused by Lynch syndrome, and showed immunohistochemistry for mismatch repair proteins was the best way to identify this syndrome. Additionally, their research showed that women want to be tested for Lynch syndrome and that testing all endometrial cancer patients is cost-effective for the UK National Health System.
From left to right: Prof. Ray McMahon, Ms Nadira Narine, Prof. Katherine Payne, Dr Louise Gorman, Prof. Emma Crosbie, Dr Neil Ryan, Dr Rhona McVey, Dr James Bolton. Also Prof. Gareth Evans and Dr Durgesh Rana (not shown). Credit: Sally Best
Changes to clinical guidelines
Following this study, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) commissioned an expert advisory group to assess the evidence, and resulted in a change in guidance which recommends universal testing of all endometrial cancer patients for Lynch syndrome. Due to cascade testing of at risk family members, this guideline means around 1,000 new people per year in the UK alone can benefit from cancer prevention strategies.
Finding out she has Lynch syndrome enables a woman to protect herself and her family members from future cancers. Manchester’s Team Womb found that women with endometrial cancer want to be tested for Lynch syndrome, showed what tests are clinically effective and cost effective for the NHS, and worked with NICE to ensure policy change. I am thrilled that our research means that everyone diagnosed with endometrial cancer in the UK is now offered testing for Lynch syndrome. The recognition of this work through the prestigious 2024 AACR Team Science Award is a tremendous honour, and I would like to thank everyone who supported us along the way. This was a true multidisciplinary effort involving clinicians, allied healthcare professionals, researchers, patients and charities without whom none of this would have been possible.
Professor Emma Crosbie
Professor of Gynaecological Oncology at The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Team members
Professor Emma Crosbie BSc MBChB (Hons) PhD FRCOG
NIHR Advanced Fellow, Professor and Honorary Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist
University of Manchester
Primary research area: Screening, prevention and early detection of gynaecological cancers
Role: Led the research programme.
Professor D Gareth Evans MB BS MD FRCP FLSW FRCOG ad eundem
Professor of Clinical Genetics and Cancer Epidemiology
University of Manchester
Primary Research area: Inherited cancer predisposition syndromes and cancer risk
Role: Led the genetics analysis and interpretation.
Professor Raymond McMahon MB BCh BAO BSc MD FRCPath FFPath RCPI PFHEA
Professor of Pathology
University of Manchester
Primary research are: Tumour pathology
Role: Led the MMR tumour staining and interpretation.
Dr Neil Ryan MBChB PhD MRCS MRCOG
MRC Clinical Research Fellow
University of Manchester
Primary research area: Lynch syndrome-associated endometrial cancer
Role: Recruited participants, collected samples, acquired and analysed data, statistical analyses.
Professor Katherine Payne PhD, MSc, DipClinPharm, BPharm, FRPharmS
Professor of Health Economics
University of Manchester
Primary Research area: Health economics, healthcare interventions and precision medicine
Role: Led the health economics analysis.
Dr Louise Gorman
Behavioural psychologist
University of Manchester
Primary research area: behavioural psychology
Role: Led the acceptability study.
Dr Rhona McVey
Consultant Gynaecological Pathologist
Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
Role: Contributed to MMR immunohistochemistry interpretation and pathology assessment of tumour samples.
Dr James Bolton
Consultant Gynaecological Pathologist
Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
Role: Contributed to MMR immunohistochemistry interpretation and pathology assessment of tumour samples.
Dr Nadira Narine
Consultant Cytopathologist
Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
Role: Devised endometrial cytology classification, performed cytological assessment and analysis.
Dr Durgesh Rana
Consultant Cytopathologist
Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
Role: Devised endometrial cytology classification, performed cytological assessment and analysis.
From left to right: Dr Rhona McVey, Dr James Bolton, Dr Louise Gorman, Ms Nadira Narine, Prof. Emma Crosbie, Prof. Katherine Payne, Dr Neil Ryan, Prof. Ray McMahon. Also Prof. Gareth Evans and Dr Durgesh Rana (not shown). Photo credit: Sally Best
Changing National Healthcare Guidance – A Lynch Syndrome Example
