Dr Chris P. Pipinikas

Cancer research

I have been at St. George’s since 2003 to carry out research work towards obtaining my PhD. During this period, I have been involved in the evaluation of several different genes as possible candidate biomarkers for early diagnosis and accurate staging of prostate cancer. Applying molecular techniques (e.g. quantitative RT-PCR) and combining them with robust statistical approaches (e.g. ROC curve and discriminant analysis), I have identified a set of markers which when combined, they provide an overall diagnostic accuracy of 95% for correctly differentiating between benign and malignant prostatic cases. My aim is to develop this into a new, non-invasive and highly accurate test for prostate cancer diagnosis. My work resulted in filing a patent application in 2005. Currently, we are planning to conduct a clinical trial to further validate and standardise this test while many leading diagnostic companies have already developed an interest in our research. My work has been funded by Prostate Research Campaign UK and the Everard and Mina Goodman Charitable Foundation.

Currently, I am evaluating a number of other candidate markers and trying to identify how levels of tumour cells in blood circulation effect levels of gene expression and disease progression.

Recent publications

C. P. Pipinikas, S. B. Nair, R. S. Kirby, N. D. Carter and C. D. Fenske. (2007). Measurement of blood E2F3 mRNA in prostate cancer by quantitative RT-PCR — A preliminary study. Biomarkers (In press)

C. P. Pipinikas, S. B. Nair, R. S. Kirby, N. D. Carter and C. D. Fenske.Up-regulation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1?) is an early event in prostate cancer development. The European Association of Urology (EAU) — 21^st Annual Congress, Paris, France, April 5-8 2006

C. P. Pipinikas, S. B. Nair, R. S. Kirby, N. D. Carter and C. D. Fenske. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha gene expression in prostate cancer measured by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction The American Society of Human Genetics, 55^th Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, October 25-29 2005, Abstract #880

C. P. Pipinikas, S. B. Nair, K. I. Konstantinou, R. S. Kirby, N. D. Carter and C. D. Fenske. Sensitive and non-invasive diagnosis of prostate cancer using E2F3 quantitative RT-PCR. Prostate Cancer — A Meeting of Minds; BAUS Section of Oncology and the British Prostate Group Joint Meeting, Manchester, UK,November 24-26 2004

C. P. Pipinikas, S. B. Nair, R. S. Kirby, N. D. Carter and C. D. Fenske. Molecular biopsy for prostate cancer using carbonic anhydrase XII quantitative RT-PCR Senior Urological Registrars Group (SURG) Meeting, Bath, UK, September 23-24 2004