Kasia Owczarczyk

King's College London | KCL · Faculty of life sciences and medicine

Background Personalising management of primary oesophageal adenocarcinoma requires better risk stratification. Lack of independent validation of proposed imaging biomarkers has hampered clinical translation. We aimed to prospectively validate previously identified prognostic grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) CT features for 3-year overall surv...

Background 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (FDG-PET-CT) is routinely used for staging oesophageal cancer and has an emerging role in evaluating response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). This study aimed to evaluate the clinical utility of FDG-PET-CT and contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) in restaging pati...

Objectives: A published tumour regression grade (TRG) score for squamous anal carcinoma treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy based on T2-weighted MRI yields a high proportion of indeterminate responses (TRG-3). We investigate whether the addition of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) improves tumour response assessment in the early post treatme...

Introduction: Better predictive markers are needed to deliver individualized care for patients with primary esophagogastric cancer. This exploratory study aimed to assess whether pre-treatment imaging parameters from dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT are associated with response to neoadjuvant therapy or out...

Background The Tumor Location-Modified Laurén Classification (MLC) system combines Laurén histologic subtype and anatomic tumor location. It divides gastric tumors into proximal non-diffuse (PND), distal non-diffuse (DND), and diffuse (D) types. The optimum classification of patients with Laurén mixed tumors in this system is not clear due to its g...

Background: This study aimed to assess the outcome of cancer patients undergoing systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT) at our centre to help inform future clinical decision-making around SACT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Patients receiving at least one episode of SACT for solid tumours at Guy's Cancer Centre between 1 March and 31 May...

Background: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (18F-FDG PET/MRI) may improve cancer staging by combining sensitive cancer detection with high-contrast resolution and detail. We compared the diagnostic performance of 18F-FDG PET/MRI to 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomograph...

Background 5-8% of the general population carry DPYD polymorphisms, risking severe toxicity from fluoropyrimidine (FP)-based chemotherapy at standard doses. In November 2018, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital established a regional protocol mandating DPYD screening for all patients starting FP-based therapy. 5 common variants associated with FP toxicit...

Background Using an updated dataset with more patients and extended follow-up, we further established cancer patient characteristics associated with COVID-19 death. Methods Data on all cancer patients with a positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) at Guy’s Cance...

3612 Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has hugely affected the spectrum of cancer care. Worldwide healthcare systems have rapidly reorganized cancer services to ensure patients continue to receive essential care whilst optimizing the use of systemic anti-cancer treatments (SACT) and minimizing exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our study aimed to id...

455 Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted difficult decisions around the use of SACT. These were based on limited early data suggesting cancer patients receiving SACT were at an increased risk of COVID-19 severe infection and death. Our study aim was to identify the COVID-19 infection and mortality rates of GI cancer patients receiving SAC...

Colorectal cancer; sidedness; anti-EGFR

Background: Baseline expression of FCRL5, a marker of naïve and memory B cells, was shown to predict response to rituximab (RTX) in rheumatoid arthritis. This study investigated baseline expression of FCRL5 as a potential biomarker of clinical response to RTX in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA). Methods:...

Esophageal, esophago-gastric, and gastric cancers are major causes of cancer morbidity and cancer death. For patients with potentially resectable disease, multi-modality treatment is recommended as it provides the best chance of survival. However, quality of life may be adversely affected by therapy, and with a wide variation in outcome despite mul...

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of image heterogeneity analysis of standard care magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) to predict chemoradiotherapy (CRT) outcome. The ability to predict disease recurrence following CRT has the potential to inform personalized radiotherapy a...

Objectives To investigate whether adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR), a hybrid iterative CT image reconstruction algorithm, affects radiomics feature quantification in primary colorectal cancer compared to filtered back projection. Additionally, to establish whether radiomics from single-slice analysis undergo greater change than...

Purpose: Radiomics describes the extraction of multiple, otherwise invisible, features from medical images that, with bioinformatic approaches, can be used to provide additional information that can predict underlying tumor biology and behavior. Methods and materials: Radiomic signatures can be used alone or with other patient-specific data to i...

Objectives: To compare maximum tumour diameter (MTD) and gross tumour volume (GTV) measurements between T2-weighted (T2-w) and diffusion-weighted (DWI) MRI in squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCCA) and assess sequence impact on tumour (T) staging. Second, to evaluate interobserver agreement and reader delineation confidence. Methods: T...

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is increasingly used in the management of unresectable liver metastases and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as it allows delivery of high-dose conformal radiotherapy with limited toxicities. However, it may be difficult to differentiate viable tumour from radiotherapy-related changes after SBRT. The imaging chan...

617Background: Despite advances in the management of anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC), roughly 25% of patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy (CRT) will experience a disease recurrence. Currently, there is no validated way to predict treatment failure and guidance on the timing of follow-up scans differs. This study was carried out to assess the r...

Background In our previous work, we developed an RT-qPCR based platform to identify B cell lineage biomarkers (BM) of clinical response to RTX in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Fc receptor-like protein 5 (FCRL5), preferentially expressed on naïve and memory B cells, was put forward as candidate BM. Objectives The goal of this study was to determine, wh...

An important goal for personalized health care is the identification of biomarkers that predict the likelihood of treatment responses. Here, we tested the hypothesis that quantitative mRNA assays for B lineage cells in blood could serve as baseline predictors of therapeutic response to B cell depletion therapy in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis...

Churg-Strauss-Syndrom (CSS) is a disorder characterized by pulmonary and systemic small-vessel vasculitis, extravascular granuloma and hypereosinophilia that occurs in patients with asthma and allergic rhinitis. The involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) is less common than peripheral neuropathy, but causes significant morbidity and mortal...

Background: Transient B cell depletion with the monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody rituximab (RTX) has been shown to result in a favorable clinical response in patients with RA and is currently approved for patients who failed or are intolerant of TNF inhibitors. Following rituximab application, depletion of peripheral B cells may be observed up to 9-12...

In line with the current licensing indications, rituximab (RTX), a monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody1 can be administered solely in combination with methotrexate (MTX).2 However, some patients are ineligible for this treatment due to contraindications to or intolerance of MTX, resulting in an unmet need for alternative treatment protocols. The aim of...

Abstract listed in “Zeitschrift für Rheumatologie”, Volume 66, Supplement 1, September 2007.

Citation: Ann Rheum Dis 2007;66(Suppl II):435