Last year, Kingston Hospital and Kingston University teamed up to launch a PhD studentship, studying HPV and its effect on upper gastrointestinal cancers, thanks to funding from Kingston Hospital Charity and the Laurie Todd Foundation. The project investigates the role of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in the development of upper gastrointestinal cancers (oesophageal and gastric), which are major health problems worldwide. It is hoped that this research will provide insight into the causes and treatment of these increasingly common cancers, via early screening and vaccination.
Dr Helen Matthews, Kingston Hospital’s Research Director and Consultant Gastroenterologist, recently attended a meeting to hear an update on the work being done and had this to say regarding the project:
“I would like to sincerely thank the endoscopy team for helping collect 51 samples of Upper GI patients to date in the space of 10 months. This is amazing work and the fact that we managed to keep this important work going during COVID-19 is especially impressive. Osama (who has been appointed to the 3 year PhD studentship) particularly wanted me to highlight how welcoming and friendly the endoscopy team were. I was very proud to be representing endoscopy team and the preliminary results are very exciting.”
