Sarah Benafif
A5034004452- COVID-19 and healthcare impacts
- Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
- Prostate Cancer Treatment and Research
- Lung Cancer Treatments and Mutations
- Prostate Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
- DNA Repair Mechanisms
- PARP inhibition in cancer therapy
- RNA modifications and cancer
- Cancer-related Molecular Pathways
- COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Cholangiocarcinoma and Gallbladder Cancer Studies
- Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
- Molecular Biology Techniques and Applications
- Colorectal Cancer Treatments and Studies
- Ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment
- Colorectal Cancer Screening and Detection
- Healthcare cost, quality, practices
- Nutrition, Genetics, and Disease
- Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Testicular diseases and treatments
- Radiomics and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging
- Economic and Financial Impacts of Cancer
- Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
- BRCA gene mutations in cancer
- Occupational and environmental lung diseases
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
2013-2025
University College London
2013-2025
Royal London Hospital
2020-2025
Institute of Cancer Research
2025
Whittington Hospital
2023-2025
Institute of Cancer Research
2016-2024
University College Hospital
2020-2024
Whittington Health NHS Trust
2024
Singleton Hospital
2023
Swansea Bay University Health Board
2023
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-associated mortality worldwide
Abstract The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic significantly affected oncology practice across the globe. There is uncertainty as to contribution of patients' demographics and oncologic features severity mortality from COVID-19 little guidance role anticancer anti–COVID-19 therapy in this population. In a multicenter study 890 patients with cancer confirmed COVID-19, we demonstrated worsening gradient breast hematologic malignancies showed that male gender, older age, number comorbidities identify subset...
Abstract B cells are frequently found in the margins of solid tumours as organized follicles ectopic lymphoid organs called tertiary structures (TLS) 1,2 . Although TLS have been to correlate with improved patient survival and response immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), underlying mechanisms this association remain elusive Here we investigate lung-resident cell responses patients from TRACERx 421 (Tracking Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Evolution Through Therapy) other lung cancer cohorts, a...
Metastatic disease is responsible for the majority of cancer-related deaths
Abstract Intratumour heterogeneity (ITH) fuels lung cancer evolution, which leads to immune evasion and resistance therapy 1 . Here, using paired whole-exome RNA sequencing data, we investigate intratumour transcriptomic diversity in 354 non-small cell tumours from 347 out of the first 421 patients prospectively recruited into TRACERx study 2,3 Analyses 947 tumour regions, representing both primary metastatic disease, alongside 96 tumour-adjacent normal tissue samples implicate transcriptome...
Abstract Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection can predict clinical risk in early-stage tumors. However, applications are constrained by the sensitivity of clinically validated ctDNA approaches. NeXT Personal is a whole-genome-based, tumor-informed platform that has been analytically for ultrasensitive at 1–3 ppm with 99.9% specificity. Through an analysis 171 patients lung cancer from TRACERx study, we detected pre-operatively within 81% adenocarcinoma (LUAD), including 53% those...
The incidence of prostate cancer is increasing. Screening with an assay prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has a high rate for false positive results. Genomewide association studies have identified common germline variants in persons cancer, which can be used to calculate polygenic risk score associated cancer. We recruited 55 69 years age from primary care centers the United Kingdom. Using DNA extracted saliva, we derived scores 130 known increased Participants 90th percentile or higher were...
Abstract The phenomenon of mixed/heterogenous treatment responses to cancer therapies within an individual patient presents a challenging clinical scenario. Furthermore, the molecular basis mixed intra-patient tumor remains unclear. Here, we show that patients with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma harbouring co-mutations EGFR and TP53 , are more likely have tyrosine kinase inhibition (TKI), compared those mutation alone. combined presence whole genome doubling (WGD) leads increased instability...
Abstract The introduction of the International Association for Study Lung Cancer grading system has furthered interest in histopathological risk stratification lung adenocarcinoma. Complex morphology and high intratumoral heterogeneity present challenges to pathologists, prompting development artificial intelligence (AI) methods. Here we developed ANORAK (pyrAmid pooliNg crOss stReam Attention networK), encoding multiresolution inputs with an attention mechanism, delineate growth patterns...
Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models are widely used in cancer research. To investigate the genomic fidelity of non-small cell lung PDX models, we established 48 from 22 patients enrolled TRACERx study. Multi-region tumor sampling increased successful engraftment and most were histologically similar to their parent tumor. Whole-exome sequencing enabled comparison tumors provide an adapted mouse reference genome for improved removal NOD scid gamma (NSG) mouse-derived reads data. model...
We describe the outcomes in cancer patients during initial outbreak of COVID-19 Europe from retrospective, multi-center observational OnCovid study. identified 204 eight centers United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain aged > 18 (mean = 69) diagnosed with between February 26th April 1st, 2020. A total 127 (62%) were male, 184 (91%) had a diagnosis solid malignancy, 103 (51%) non-metastatic disease. 161 (79%) 1 co-morbidity. 141 (69%) complication. 36 (19%) escalated to high-dependency or intensive...
Rare germline mutations in DNA repair genes are associated with prostate cancer (PCa) predisposition and prognosis. To quantify the frequency of gene UK PCa cases controls, order to more comprehensively evaluate contribution individual overall risk likelihood aggressive disease. We sequenced 167 eight candidate a UK-based cohort 1281 young-onset (diagnosed at ≤60 yr) 1160 selected controls. Gene-level SKAT-O gene-set adaptive combination p values (ADA) analyses were performed separately for...
BACKGROUNDPhase 1 study of ATRinhibition alone or with radiation therapy (PATRIOT) was a first-in-human phase I the oral ATR (ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related) inhibitor ceralasertib (AZD6738) in advanced solid tumors.METHODSThe primary objective safety. Secondary objectives included assessment antitumor responses pharmacokinetic (PK) pharmacodynamic (PD) studies. Sixty-seven patients received 20-240 mg BD continuously intermittently (14 28-day cycle).RESULTSIntermittent dosing better...
Objectives To assess the feasibility and uptake of a community‐based prostate cancer (PCa) screening programme selecting men according to their genetic risk PCa. PCa investigations by invited for screening. The pilot study would guide opening larger BARCODE1 recruiting 5000 men. Subjects Methods Healthy males aged 55–69 years were participate via general practitioners (GPs). Saliva samples collected mailed collection kits. After DNA extraction, genotyping was conducted using specific assay....
Abstract Human tumors are diverse in their natural history and response to treatment, which part results from genetic transcriptomic heterogeneity. In clinical practice, single-site needle biopsies used sample this diversity, but cancer biomarkers may be confounded by spatiogenomic heterogeneity within individual tumors. Here we investigate clonally expressed genes as a solution the sampling bias problem analyzing multiregion whole-exome RNA sequencing data for 450 tumor regions 184 patients...