Serena Nik-Zainal: Personalised treatment for cancer patients

“I hope it will happen in our lifetime, that we will start to learn how to use the totality of information that's available on tumours. And I don't just mean genomics, I mean any of it - including all the bits around the tumour, the microenvironment, the immune system. In the last 10 years alone, cancer research has grown phenomenally. It's been extraordinary to be involved in all of it. It's a very real privilege to be to be in this space.” 

In this week's episode of The G Word, Chris Wigley is joined by Serena Nik-Zainal, a consultant in clinical genetics, a Cancer Research UK Advanced Clinical Scientist at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. She was the first woman to win the Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award in 2019. 

Serena discusses sharing data, personalised treatment for cancer patients and the impact of the 100,000 Genomes Project. She also talks about the involvement of participants, cancer research and the need for genomic data diversity.