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Making some simple changes to your lifestyle can significantly reduce your risk of developing cancer. For example, healthy eating, taking regular exercise and not smoking will all help lower your risk.
A healthy lifestyle can help reduce your chances of developing cancer.
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Cancer is such a common disease that it is no surprise that many families have at least a few members who have had cancer.
Genetic testing can be useful for people with certain types of cancer that seem to run in their families, but these tests aren't recommended for everyone.
Robert Leonard
Consultant OncologistDirectory:
Expertise:
Robert Leonard is a medical oncologist with a major interest in the management of breast cancer. He is a former Professor of Cancer Studies at Imperial College London and honorary consultant medical oncologist at Imperial College NHS Trust; The BUPA Cromwell Hospital, The London Clinic and the London Oncology Clinic. His academic roles have included 25 years in senior Academic and NHS administrative roles in London, Edinburgh and Swansea.
Professor Leonard originally trained and qualified at Charing Cross Hospital, where he was awarded the Clinical Gold Medal and six of the final year prizes. Research Fellowships at Oxford’s Radcliffe Infirmary and Harvard Medical School followed his post-graduate training.
Prior to his roles as Professor of Cancer Studies and Chief of Service for Medical Oncology at Imperial College, he was Professor of Medical Oncology at Swansea Medical School and Director of the South West Wales Cancer Institute.
He is a co-founder and is Medical Director for Maggies’ Cancer Caring Centres UK, and chairs the professional advisory board. Since 2009 he has been Chair of the Scientific Board for Breast Cancer Care UK. He set up and Chairs the International Anglo Celtic Collaborative Oncology Trials Group.
He is author/co-author of more than 350 peer reviewed original papers and reviews. He has been a senior advisor to Cancer Research UK and is lead investigator several previous and current UK clinical Trials. He also regularly acts as expert oncology witness for legal cases.
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Click here to find out more about The Cancer Genome Atlas project
The Cancer Genome Atlas is a landmark research program supported by the National Cancer Institute and National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. TCGA researchers will identify the genomic changes in more than 20 different types of human cancer.
By comparing the DNA in samples of normal tissue and cancer tissue taken from the same patient, researchers can identify changes specific to that particular cancer.
TCGA is analyzing hundreds of samples for each type of cancer. By looking at many samples from many different patients, researchers will gain a better understanding of what makes one cancer different from another cancer. This is important because even two patients with the same type of cancer may experience very different outcomes or respond very differently to treatments. By connecting specific genomic changes with specific outcomes, researchers will be able to develop more effective, individualized ways of helping each cancer patient.
What is TCGA Trying to Find?
TCGA will help us to understand what turns a normal cell into a cancer cell. By comparing DNA from normal and cancer tissue, we have already learned that:
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There are certain areas of the genome commonly affected in several types of cancers. Often, these changes affect genes that control pathways in cells that cause cells to divide and survive when they normally would die.
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Specific changes – also called signatures – allow us to tell one type of cancer from another. These signatures help doctors identify specific types
of cancer, which may respond differently to various treatments or have a different prognosis.
