̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

AI is as good as pathologists at diagnosing coeliac disease, study finds

cjb250 — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 13:00:03 +0000

A machine learning algorithm developed by Cambridge scientists was able to correctly identify in 97 cases out of 100 whether or not an individual had coeliac disease based on their biopsy, new research has shown.

Powerful new MRI scans enable life-changing surgery in first for adults with epilepsy

cjb250 — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:01:25 +0000

Scientists have developed a new technique that has enabled ultra-powerful MRI scanners to identify tiny differences in patients’ brains that cause treatment-resistant epilepsy. It has allowed doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, to offer the patients surgery to cure their condition.

Cambridge and London hospitals to pioneer brain implants to combat alcohol and opioid addiction

cjb250 — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 08:00:50 +0000

̽��ֱ��technique – known as deep brain stimulation – is to be trialled at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and King’s College Hospital, London. ̽��ֱ��team behind the Brain-PACER: Brain Pacemaker Addiction Control to End Relapse study will soon be recruiting individuals with severe alcohol or opioid addiction who are interested in taking part.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure that delivers ongoing stimulation to the brain. DBS acts as a brain pacemaker to normalise abnormal brain activity. It is well-tolerated, effective and widely used for neurological disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Although there have been several proof-of-concept studies that suggest DBS is effective in addictions, Brain-PACER – a collaboration between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Kings College London and the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford – is the first major, multicentre study to use DBS to treat craving and relapse in severe addiction.

Chief Investigator Professor Valerie Voon, from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “While many people who experience alcohol or drug addiction can, with the right support, control their impulses, for some people, their addiction is so severe that no treatments are effective. Their addiction is hugely harmful to their health and wellbeing, to their relationships and their everyday lives.

“Initial evidence suggests that deep brain stimulation may be able to help these individuals manage their conditions. We’ve seen how effective it can be for other neurological disorders from Parkinson’s to OCD to depression. We want to see if it can also transform the lives of people with intractable alcohol and opioid addiction.”

̽��ֱ��primary aim of the Brain-PACER study is to assess the effects of DBS to treat alcohol and opioid addiction in a randomised controlled trial study. Its mission is twofold: to develop effective treatments for addiction and to understand the brain mechanisms that drive addiction disorders.

DBS is a neurosurgical treatment that involves implanting a slender electrode in the brain and a pacemaker under general anaesthesia. These electrodes deliver electrical impulses to modulate neural activity, which can help alleviate symptoms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Keyoumars Ashkan, Professor of Neurosurgery at King’s College Hospital and the lead surgeon for the study, said: “Deep brain stimulation is a powerful surgical technique that can transform lives. It will be a major leap forward if we can show efficacy in this very difficult disease with huge burden to the patients and society.”

During surgery, thin electrodes are carefully placed in precise locations of the brain. These locations are chosen based on the condition being treated. For addiction, the electrodes are placed in areas involved in reward, motivation, and decision-making.

Harry Bulstrode, Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Lecturer at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: "We see first-hand how deep brain stimulation surgery can be life-changing for patients with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Thanks to this trial, I am now hopeful that we can help patients and their families – who have often struggled for years – by targeting the parts of the brain linked to addiction."

Dr David Okai, Visiting Senior Lecturer from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, added: “DBS is safe, reversible and adjustable, so it offers a flexible option for managing chronic conditions. We hope it will offer a lifeline to help improve the quality of life for patients whose treatment until now has been unsuccessful.”

Details on the trial, including criteria for participation, can be found on the Brain-PACER website.

̽��ֱ��research is supported by the Medical Research Council, UK Research & Innovation.

People suffering from severe alcohol and opioid addiction are to be offered a revolutionary new technique involving planting electrodes in the brain to modulate brain activity and cravings and improve self-control.

We’ve seen how effective deep brain stimulation can be for neurological disorders from Parkinson’s to OCD to depression. We want to see if it can also transform the lives of people with intractable alcohol and opioid addiction

Valerie Voon

Shamir R, Noecker A and McIntyre C

Graphic demonstrating deep brain stimulation

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Prioritise vaccine boosters for vulnerable immunocompromised patients, say scientists

cjb250 — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 19:00:46 +0000

̽��ֱ��findings, published today in Science Advances, suggest that such individuals will need regular vaccine boosters to protect them and reduce the risk of infections that could be severe and also lead to new ‘variants of concern’ emerging.

Almost 16 million people worldwide are estimated to have died from Covid-19 during 2020 and 2021, though nearly 20 million deaths are thought to have been prevented as a result of the rapid rollout of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the pandemic.

During the pandemic, researchers discovered that immunocompromised individuals had difficulty clearing the virus, even when vaccinated. These are people whose immune systems are not functioning correctly, either as a direct result of disease or because they are on medication to dampen down their immune systems, for example to prevent organ transplant rejection. This meant that their infections lasted longer, giving the virus more opportunities to mutate.

Research from early in the pandemic showed that chronic infections can give rise to variants of concern that can then cause new waves of infection in the wider population.

When an individual is vaccinated, their immune systems produce antibodies that recognise and launch an attack on the virus. Such a process is known as seroconversion. Additional ‘booster’ vaccinations increase seroconversion and hence the likelihood of clearing infection.

However, although most immunocompromised individuals will have received three or more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, they still account for more than a fifth of hospitalisations, admissions to intensive care units, and overall deaths associated with the disease.

To see why this is the case, scientists at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge examined immunocompromised individuals who had been vaccinated against Covid-19. These patients, recruited from Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, were living with vasculitis, a group of disorders that cause inflammation of blood vessels. Data from this group was compared against individuals who were not immunocompromised.

Treatments for vasculitis rely on immunosuppressant medicines. These include drugs such as rituximab, which depletes the number of B-cells in the body – but B-cells are the immune cells responsible for producing antibodies. As such, these individuals are a severely at-risk population.

When the researchers analysed bloods samples from the vasculitis patients, they found that even though vaccination induced seroconversion, this in itself was not always sufficient to neutralise the virus. Every immunocompromised individual required at least three doses of the vaccine to protect them across a range of variants up to and include Omicron (the variant that appeared towards the end of 2021 and caused a new wave of infections). In some cases, even four vaccinations were not sufficient to adequately protect them.

Kimia Kamelian, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at CITIID and St Edmund's College, Cambridge, said: “We know that immunocompromised individuals are particularly vulnerable to diseases such as Covid-19 because their immune systems struggle to clear infections. Vaccinations offer some protection, but our study shows that only repeated vaccinations – often four or more – offer the necessary protection.”

Professor Ravi Gupta, also from CITIID and a Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge, added: “This of course has implications for the individual, who is more likely to have prolonged infection and a much greater risk of severe infection, but it also gives the virus multiple opportunities to mutate.

“We know from our previous work that at least some of the variants of concern probably emerged during chronic infections. That’s why these individuals must be given priority for updated vaccines against new variants.”

̽��ֱ��research was funded by Wellcome, Gates Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and Vasculitis UK, with additional support by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Kamelian, K et al. Humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in vasculitis-related immune suppression. Sci Adv; 12 Feb 2025; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq3342

Vaccinations alone may not be enough to protect people with compromised immune systems from infection, even if the vaccine has generated the production of antibodies, new research from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has shown.

We know that immunocompromised individuals are particularly vulnerable to diseases such as Covid-19 because their immune systems struggle to clear infections

Kimia Kamelian

NoSystem images

Vaccination of an senior male

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Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital given green light by government

cjb250 — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 08:00:32 +0000

Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH) will transform how we diagnose and treat cancer. It will bring together world-leading research and clinical excellence to change the lives of cancer patients across the East of England, the UK and beyond.

̽��ֱ��Hospital was part of the government’s review of its New Hospitals Programme. In naming the project as one of the schemes that has advanced plans in place, including significant progress on our full business case, the Government confirmed the good news that we can prepare for construction to start in 2026. It remains on track to be built by 2029.

Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, a partnership between Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, will combine NHS clinical space with three new state-of-the-art research institutes that will support the ambitions set out in the government's new NHS ten-year plan.

Bringing together world-class NHS clinicians with cutting-edge ̽��ֱ�� and industry-led research, the hospital will accelerate the early detection of cancer and prevention of illness, and lead the way in delivering bespoke, precision treatments that will radically improve patient outcomes.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “This is excellent news for the future of Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which promises to have a huge impact on how we diagnose and treat cancer, not only in our region, but globally.

“Our teams are also working hard to secure much-needed philanthropic support to complement the funding committed by the NHS and the ̽��ֱ��. Generous donations will help realise our vision for this revolutionary, and much-needed, research hospital.”

Find out more about the hospital that will change the story of cancer forever here.

̽��ֱ��Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has announced that ambitious plans can proceed for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which promises to change the story of cancer forever.

Our teams are also working hard to secure much-needed philanthropic support to complement the funding committed by the NHS and the ̽��ֱ��. Generous donations will help realise our vision for this revolutionary, and much-needed, research hospital

Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor

̽��ֱ��hospital that will change the story of cancer forever

Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital - artist's impression

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Cambridge's Raj Jena becomes UK's first Professor of AI in radiotherapy

sb726 — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 08:00:31 +0000

̽��ֱ��creation of the new Clinical Professorship signals the importance of AI in the fight against cancer and builds on the ̽��ֱ��’s work to apply the latest technology to the world’s major challenges.

Together against prostate cancer

cjb250 — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 14:43:36 +0000

New, repurposed and combined treatments could soon transform prostate cancer outcomes, with DNA repair research informing promising clinical trials at Cambridge.

Cambridge is changing the story of cancer

cjb250 — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 07:00:41 +0000

Find out about groundbreaking cancer research at Cambridge, including our planned new hospital, how we're studying the earliest stages of cancer, how AI is helping fight the disease, and the patients playing a key role in our work.