SfE BES is all about bringing endocrine professionals together to share knowledge and spark future collaborations. This year, for the first time, delegates are invited to hear specific research proposals and contribute their insights, data or resources to really help get these fledgling projects off the ground.
Here, Dr Kate Lines, from the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM), University of Oxford, talks about her proposal to be presented at an Endocrine Network Research Incubator Meeting to further understanding of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. To complete her project, she needs SfE BES 2017 delegates to provide more patient samples!
My research mainly focuses on learning more about how pancreatic islet cell tumours (pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours) grow, and using this information to develop new therapies. One specific area that has begun to interest me recently is inflammation. Inflammation is a process in which the body sends cells of the immune system (or white blood cells) to specific areas to defend against foreign substances. It has now been shown that many tumours can hijack this system by releasing chemicals to lure in white blood cells. Once the white blood cells reach the tumour they are encouraged to secrete small proteins (cytokines), which help make the perfect environment for the tumour to grow. The perfect growth environment is different for different tumours, therefore the specific white blood cells and cytokines needed by each tumour is also different. Currently, not much is known about which white blood cells and cytokines are most important for supporting pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours.
I submitted a proposal for the Endocrine Neoplasia Syndromes Network Research Incubator Meeting at SfE BES 2017 that suggests examining the area around dissected tissue from pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours for these specific cells and cytokines. Once we have this information we can use it to either help diagnose the tumours (as the cytokines can be detected in the blood), or target them with specific drugs to try to make the environment less ideal for the tumour to grow. However, the trouble with pancreatic endocrine tumours is that although they can be deadly, they are also rare. This is the main stumbling block for the proposed study, as our hospital alone doesn’t have enough samples for us to be confident that the specific cells and cytokines we see are representative of those occurring in all patients.
The Endocrine Neoplasia Syndromes Network Research Incubator Meeting provides a rare opportunity for us to try to access these samples from different hospitals in different locations, which ultimately could provide a set of samples that is truly representative of all the pancreatic neuroendocrine patients in the UK. Not only could the members help by providing samples for this study, but as our work continues they could also provide further samples, such as blood, for future work stemming from this proposal. I therefore hope that the other members of the network will be as interested in this area as I am and would like to provide us with lots of patient samples to investigate. In addition, as an early career researcher it is rare to get the chance to present new ideas to my peers. I am therefore looking forward to what I hope will be an exciting and stimulating discussion on a new area of research for me.
The Endocrine Network Research Incubator Meetings will take place on Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 November, 07:45–08:30, come along to the Endocrine Network Meeting most relevant to your research interests and read the full scientific programme for SfE BES 2017 for more details.
To join an Endocrine Network login to the ‘My profile’ section of the ‘Members’ Area and select Endocrine Networks.
The Endocrine Post 