St Mark’s Hospital Foundation supports research, education, and innovation at St Mark’s Hospital. Located in North West London, St Mark’s is widely recognised as the UK’s national bowel hospital and one of the world’s leading institutions for gastroenterology. The £5,000 grant from London Freemasons will support their research.
As a centre of excellence specialising in colorectal and intestinal medicine, St Mark’s attracts a high calibre of junior doctors that desire to undertake a PhD or MD under the supervision of a St Mark’s consultant. At any one time, they have as many as thirty research fellows working on projects covering the spectrum of gastrointestinal disease; they organise and deliver an annual programme of education, ensuring that the best practice developed at St Mark’s is shared widely with the colorectal community.
The £5,000 grant from London Freemasons’ Charity will support St Mark’s Clinical Academic Fellow Miss Sara Renshaw’s research into Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
IBD affects 1 in 123 people in the UK. It is the umbrella term for a group of illnesses which cause chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Individuals suffering from IBD of the colon are at increased risk of bowel cancer than those without IBD.
A different precursor to bowel cancer, the sessile serrated lesion (named for its serrated, saw-like appearance) has recently been identified. It is increasingly being detected in patients with IBD, and pilot data from St Mark’s suggests that there are an increased number of pre-cancerous sessile serrated lesions in IBD than is commonly reported in non-IBD patients. Furthermore, with improving endoscopic technology, further serrated-type lesions are being identified in IBD beyond the sessile serrated lesion.
Miss Renshaw’s research seeks to understand serrated lesions within IBD, define their cancer risk and identify markers that can predict patients at higher risk of progression to cancer. There is an unmet need to create guidelines for endoscopic follow up of serrated lesions in IBD to personalise and improve patient care; this research will support the development of the first clinical recommendations for management of these patients.
To find out more about the work at St Mark’s Hospital Foundation, visit www.stmarkshospitalfoundation.org.uk
