Early Career Researchers

“Leeds has a very caring neurosurgical unit, not only for patients but also for us as trainees,” Christopher says. “It’s forward thinking, with cutting edge research and a fantastic neuro-oncology service and is recognised nationally as a leader in this field.”

His research, funded by Leeds Hospitals Charity, is in brain cancer.

He explains that after surgery to remove brain tumours, small cells, too small to be seen with a microscope, are left behind and they invade tissues and form new tumours. Christopher’s research aims to understand the biology and behaviours of those cells.

“As a surgeon, I'm very interested in brain cancer. It’s a deadly and horrible disease. Despite our best treatment efforts, patients don't survive for very long - at best with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, we're looking at 12 to 15 months and this is with surgery as well.”

As a registrar he sees patients, and their families, in clinic after surgery.

“You quickly realize that patients have a very poor life expectancy. You also see how the families deal with tragic circumstances. I remember seeing a patient with very poor prognosis getting married on our ward because he might not survive until discharge. You think we do our bit as surgeons; we operate, and we certainly help them towards getting the chemo and radiotherapy that they need. But you always ask yourself, can I do more? Is there something else that I can do?”

Most of the UK’s cancer research funding goes towards cancers which affect more people, such as breast or lung cancer.

Brain cancer, he says, is difficult to understand and treat: “Researchers have made very little in the way of true progress to change the life expectancy of patients” and the research that has been done, he says, shows how “this cancer is beating us.”

He is optimistic research will make a difference. The answer he said is collaborative research: “It's probably going be a multi-pronged approach with many different research groups adding little bits of information until someone can put it all together and show a positive result. That's what I suspect will probably happen. At some point, we will crack the code, but it takes everyone’s help. We all have to work together.”

Without funding from Leeds Hospitals Charity, Christopher says he wouldn’t have had the chance to do this research: “It’s as simple as that.”

“We have a clear need. What we have to do, as clinicians and scientists - and as people – is ask the right questions. That is what research is. If we don't ask the right questions, we'll never find the answers we seek.”

All photo credits: Ruby Lee
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