The 12 professorships, two readers and one senior lecturer awarded, all from within member organisations of King’s Health Partners, were the first to be assessed with the new metrics, introduced to the College awards process as of January 2010.

Not only were the new academic titles awarded with the introduction of the new assessment criteria, but the medical directors of the acute Trusts of King’s Health Partners - Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital - were present on the panels as observers.

The recognition of the contribution of the academic clinician is an important step in cementing the integration of training and education, research and clinical care, which is at the heart of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.

Professor Robert Lechler, Vice-Principal for Health at King’s College London and Executive Director of King’s Health Partners said; “This slightly broader set of metrics will allow our NHS clinicians to receive the recognition deserved for their contributions and award them accordingly.

“This is the first wave of academic awards using these new metrics, and we are committed both as a university and founding member of King’s Health Partners to continuing this process to encourage and further develop our clinical talent, and achieve our objectives as an Academic Health Sciences Centre.”

The clinical academic awards will take effect from 1 September 2010.

ENDS

For further information please contact Clair McInally, Communications, King’s Health Partners. Telephone: 020 7188 4058 or email clair.mcinally@kcl.ac.uk

Paul took post as Chair of the HIEC this month (June 2010). He brings with him almost three decades’ experience in public health at local, national and international levels in the public and third sector. He is currently Chief Executive of the National Heart Forum - a UK alliance of national chronic disease charities, professional, health, social policy and consumer organisations focusing on the primary prevention of coronary heart disease and avoidable linked conditions. Paul is also an adviser to the World Health Organisation and a member of several government expert public health advisory groups. He was awarded an OBE in the 2008 New Year Honours List for services to healthcare.

The South London HIEC includes all the region’s major health and education providers. Members have joined together to improve patient care in local communities, through better trained clinicians and faster translation and adoption of research and innovation. The guiding principle of the HIEC is that by working closer together, organisations can share knowledge and best practice, and develop new initiatives that bring real benefits to healthcare provision in south London and beyond.

“Fundamentally, the HIEC is focused on bringing existing ideas and best practice solutions out of individual organisations and putting them into practice in other organisations throughout the region as quickly as possible, ultimately bringing more benefits to a larger number of patients,” says Professor Anne Greenough, Lead of the South London HIEC and Director of Education and Training for King’s Health Partners. “We are delighted to appoint Paul as the first Chair of the South London HIEC. His wealth of experience in public health will complement the work of the HIEC,” she concludes.

Established in December 2009, the South London HIEC is focused on enhancing patient care in: diabetes, infection prevention and control, mental health, stroke, and establishing excellent joint working across south London.

On his appointment, Paul comments: “I look forward to working with members of the South London HIEC to help realise the benefits of collaborative working to improve healthcare. Too often excellent initiatives and ways of working stay within four walls, limiting the number of people who can benefit from these. I am pleased to be involved in this new, pioneering alliance and have already been impressed with the quality of the work that has been undertaken.” 

-ends-

For further information contact Helena Clay in the St George’s, University of London press office on 020 8266 6831 or hclay@sgul.ac.uk

Notes to editors: 

1. Established in December 2009, the HIEC brings together members of south London’s two major healthcare networks - the South West London Academic Forum and King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. This includes all south London’s primary care and mental health trusts, 17 NHS hospitals, the London Ambulance Service and the local Health Protection Unit, as well as six universities, further education providers and social care teams.
2. South West London Academic Health and Social Care Network (AHSN) is a new, pioneering membership network of organisations spanning health, social care and higher education, and working with the third sector and industry. Its mission is to provide world-class health and social care services to people living in south west London. This will be achieved by the Network’s members working together to develop and share evaluated best practice in health and social care. For more information, visit www.swlondonahsn.org 
3. King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.  King’s Health Partners is one of only five AHSCs in the UK and brings together an unrivalled range and depth of clinical and research expertise, spanning both physical and mental health. Our combined strengths will drive improvements in care for patients, allowing them to benefit from breakthroughs in medical science and receive leading edge treatment at the earliest possible opportunity. For more information, visit www.kingshealthpartners.org

More than 100 researchers involved with the National Institute for Health Research comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London took a tour of the facilities and met staff working in the facility at a showcase event earlier this week.

The clinical research facilities on the Guy’s site include:

• a bright and comfortable reception and lounge for research participants
• 4 examination/consultation rooms
• 2 rooms with 3 day case recliner chairs in each
• 3 x 2 bedded areas (2 under negative pressure)
• a procedure room for e.g. bronchoscopies and biopsies
• a sample handling laboratory
• a flow cytometry and immune monitoring laboratory
• a 160m² Good Manufacturing Practice compliant facility with 3 independent cleanrooms
• office accommodation for research and nursing staff
• a fully equipped hospital kitchen
• a meeting room with audio visual capability

Director of the facilities, Professor Frank Nestle said: “These facilities provide patients and healthy volunteers with the opportunity to participate in leading-edge research, which aims to turn scientific breakthroughs into new ways to prevent, manage and treat diseases.”

The facilities at Guy’s have a special focus around cancer, transplantation, rheumatology, dermatology, chronic inflammatory disorders, asthma and allergy. They are an integral part of King’s Health Partners’ Experimental Medicine Hub within Guy’s Tower, which includes the Quintiles Drug Research Unit at Guy’s Hospital, a Good Manufacturing Practice Pharmacy, an Assisted Conception Unit and the physical centre of the BRC’s Faculty of Translational Medicine,

The Guy’s facilities also complement the existing clinical research facilities at St Thomas’, which opened in 2008, and focus on nutrition, obesity, cardiovascular health, clinical pharmacology, women’s health and twins research.

Consultant oncologist at Guy’s, Dr James Spicer said: “As a clinical researcher, I am looking forward to carrying out clinical trials with cancer patients in a dedicated research environment within Guy’s Hospital.”

The facilities at Guy’s have been made possible by generous contributions from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, including legacies worth £1.02 million from the late Mr and Mrs Leonard Barraclough, as well as by funding from King’s College and the National Institute for Health Research as part of our comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award.

For more information about the work of the NIHR comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre and the clinical research facilities, visit: www.biomedicalresearchcentre.org

-Ends-

Note to editors: 

1. Contact: Andrea Ttofa, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust tel: 020 7188 5577 or email: andrea.ttofa@gstt.nhs.uk. Out of hours, please call our pager bureau on 0844 822 2888, ask for pager number 847704 and give the pager operator your message.
2. The comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’sand St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, is one of five National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive Biomedical Research Centres in England.With its strong focus on ‘translational research’ across seven research themes and a number of cross-cutting disciplines, it aims to take advances in basic medical research out of the laboratory and into the clinical setting to benefit patients at the earliest opportunity. Access to the uniquely diverse patient population of London and the south east enables it to drive forward research into a wide range of diseases and medical conditions. Website: www.biomedicalresearchcentre.org
3. Guy’s and St Thomas’ provides around 900,000 patient contacts in acute and specialist hospital services every year. As one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the UK, it employs almost 11,000 staff. The Trust works in partnership with the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Biomedical Sciences of King’s College London and other Higher Education Institutes to deliver high quality education and research. Website: www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk.
4. King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King’s is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
5. Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London are part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts. King’s Health Partners is one of only five AHSCs in the UK and brings together an unrivalled range and depth of clinical and research expertise, spanning both physical and mental health. Our combined strengths will drive improvements in care for patients, allowing them to benefit from breakthroughs in medical science and receive leading edge treatment at the earliest possible opportunity. For more information, visit www.kingshealthpartners.org 
6.  The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) provides the framework through which the research staff and research infrastructure of the NHS in England is positioned, maintained and managed as a national research facility. The NIHR provides the NHS with the support and infrastructure it needs to conduct first-class research funded by the Government and its partners alongside high-quality patient care, education and training. Its aim is to support outstanding individuals (both leaders and collaborators), working in world-class facilities (both NHS and university), conducting leading-edge research focused on the needs of patients. www.nihr.ac.uk

CAGs will be the operative elements of the Academic Health Sciences Centre of King’s Health Partners. The initial role of the CAG  is in strategic development. The CAGS will  focus on:

• service delivery and development;
• teaching and training, and
• academic activity, importantly including robust clinically relevant evaluation of new services and therapies, as well as traditional basic and translational research.

As all components of our CAG are rooted in links between primary, community and specialist care, we need to know at this early stage how you would like to be involved in the CAG and have your input into how the CAG should develop, including how we tackle specific issues to achieve our goals.

We are aware there are currently many meetings but we really do need your input and would like to invite you to meet us.

The time: 7pm

The date: Monday 5^th July

The place: The Robens Suite, Guy’s Hospital, London Bridge

We plan a few short presentations to introduce the CAG and lots of discussion! 

Please do come!

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). It is the second most common type of leukaemia in adults and usually affects men during or after middle age. Symptoms - which aren’t always obvious - include swollen lympth nodes and tiredness. Treatment options include chemotherapy and, less often, bone marrow transplants.

The haematology department at King’s College Hospital has been awarded £70,000 from the LLR to investigate the theory that giving antibiotics to patients with early onset chronic lymphocytic leukaemia can help to delay progression of the disease. Researchers at King’s College Hospital will use the funds to lead a UK clinical trial investigating the theory over a period of two years.

Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research has also awarded King’s College Hospital £200,000 to help fund laboratory research into CLL in an attempt to better understand how the disease interacts with the normal immune system. King’s College Hospital is a regional referral centre for patients with CLL, so is ideally placed to investigate underlying causes and potential treatments for the condition.

Dr Steve Devereux, Consultant Haematologist at King’s College Hospital, said: “This is fantastic news, and just reward for a huge amount of hard work by staff working in the department. Both grants from the LLR will enable us to ask important questions about the disease - longer-term, we hope this will lead to improved treatment and better outcomes for patients.”

Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research is focussed on finding causes, improving diagnosis and treatments, and running groundbreaking clinical trials for all blood cancer patients. For more information, visit their website at: www.llresearch.org.uk

At least 5-10% of heroin addicts fail to benefit from established conventional treatments but whether they are untreatable or just difficult to treat is unknown. However, a scientific evidence base is emerging to support the effectiveness of maintenance treatment with directly supervised medicinal heroin (diamorphine or diacetylmorphine) as a second-line treatment for chronic heroin addiction.

In this randomised controlled trial, chronic heroin addicts who were receiving conventional oral treatment (≥26 weeks), but continued to inject street heroin regularly (≥50% days in preceding 13 weeks) were enrolled. Patients were assigned to receive supervised injectable methadone*** (42 patients), supervised injectable heroin (43), or optimised oral methadone (42). Treatment was provided for 26 weeks in three National Health Service (NHS) supervised injecting clinics in England (London, Brighton, Darlington). Primary outcome was 50% or more negative specimens for street heroin on weekly random urine analysis during weeks 14-26.

The researchers found that, at 26 weeks, 80% of patients remained in assigned treatment-81% on supervised injectable methadone, 88% on supervised injectable heroin, and 69% on optimised oral methadone. Proportions of patients achieving 50% or more negative samples for street heroin were highest in the injectable heroin group (66%) followed by injectable methadone (30%) and oral methadone (19%).
The authors say: “We have shown that treatment with supervised injectable heroin leads to significantly lower use of street heroin than does supervised injectable methadone or optimised oral methadone. Furthermore, this difference was evident within the first 6 weeks of treatment.”

They conclude: “‘Rolling out the prescription of injectable heroin and methadone to clients who do not respond to other forms of treatment’, is detailed in the UK Government’s 2008 Drug Strategy, subject to the results from this trial. In the past 15 years, six randomised trials have all reported benefits from treatment with injectable heroin compared with oral methadone. Supervised injectable heroin should now be provided, with close monitoring, for carefully selected chronic heroin addicts in the UK.”

Professor Strang adds****: “Our scientific understanding about how to treat people with severe heroin addiction has taken an important step forward.  The RIOTT study shows that previously unresponsive patients can achieve major reductions in their use of street heroin and, impressively, these outcomes were seen within 6 weeks. Our work offers government robust evidence to support the expansion of this treatment, so that more patients can benefit.”
In an accompanying Comment, Dr Thomas Kerr, Julio S G Montaner, Evan Wood, all of the Urban Health Research Initiative, at British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St Paul’s Hospital, and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, say: “History tells us that availability of heroin prescription can be dictated more by special interests and politics than evidence.”  They detail various scenarios in Australia, Switzerland and other countries where heroin trials have been halted or existing heroin support programmes have been placed under threat.

They conclude: “This state of affairs is sad because other medical specialties commonly embrace second-line therapies, even if only for a selected group who fail first-line treatments. In the era of evidence-based decision making, moving forward will probably need those embroiled in this debate to cast aside the stigma associated with heroin prescription, and recognise that the drug was once a pharmaceutical product with physiological and chemical properties similar to other opioids that are in common clinical use. The existing interference and non-evidence-based opposition from politicians and care providers, who refuse to acknowledge the limitations of methadone maintenance and the superiority of prescribed heroin in selected populations, is arguably unethical. Denying effective second-line therapy to those in need ultimately serves to condemn many users of illicit heroin to the all too common outcomes of untreated heroin addiction, including HIV infection or death from overdose.”

For full Article and Comment see: http://press.thelancet.com/riott.pdf

** The National Addictions Centre is jointly run by the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Both are part of King’s Health Partners, an Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) for London, bringing together clinical and research expertise across both physical and mental health.

***For details of the three treatment strategies, see panel page 1886 of full Article

****quote direct from Professor Strang and cannot be found in text of Article

A team of researchers across Europe have identified a ‘full set’ of immunological markers in the blood, which could be used to predict whether an individual’s kidney transplant will be a long term success or whether it will fail.  It is hoped that the research will lead to doctors being able to deliver more personalised care to kidney transplant patients in future, by safely modifying the amount of medication patients take while preventing rejection of the donor organ.

The research, due to be published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was led by King’s College London with its MRC Centre for Transplantation and its National Institute for Health Research comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, a partnership between King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.   Seven European institutions collaborated in this multicentre study: King’s College London, Imperial College London and Oxford University in the UK, Institut de Transplantation et de Recherche en Transplantation (ITERT)  in France, Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Miltenyi Biotec in Germany.

The team of European researchers studied kidney transplant tolerance - how accepting the body is of a foreign organ. They studied 11 kidney transplant patients from across Europe who had seemed to develop tolerance of the donor organ naturally, as well as stable transplant patients who were taking varying amounts of immunosuppression (drugs to control their immune response), patients who were taking such drugs but showing signs of chronically rejecting the donor organ, and a group of healthy volunteers.  They carried out a range of detailed laboratory tests to see if they could identify any characteristics in the blood that differentiated the group who were not taking medication and had become tolerant of their transplanted organ. 

Dr Maria Hernandez-Fuentes, senior author of the study, at King’s College London said: “Astonishingly there are rare individuals who seem to develop tolerance naturally after a kidney transplant.  This is usually only revealed when unexpectedly organ rejection does not take place if they have to stop taking their immunosuppressive drugs for some reason.  We worked with renal units across Europe to identify this small number of patients and then sought to involve them in our research.”

Dr Hernandez-Fuentes and the team were able to demonstrate that these individuals share a ‘tolerance fingerprint’, a specific ‘full set’ of immunological markers in the blood. This group displayed an expansion of peripheral blood B and NK lymphocytes, fewer activated CD4+ T cells, absence of donor-specific antibodies, direct-pathway donor-specific hyporesponsiveness and a high ratio of FoxP3/αmannosidase gene expression.  In addition, microarray analysis revealed tolerant recipients have a B cell bias in differentially expressed genes and their associated molecular pathways.

The European team’s findings were subsequently corroborated in another cohort of kidney transplant recipients that was independently recruited by the Immune Tolerance Network in the United States, and whose results are published in the same issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Every year, approximately 3,500 organ transplants take place in the UK, 1,550 of these are kidney transplants.  The average lifespan of a transplanted kidney is 12 years, rising to around 20 years in some cases if the kidney is from a living donor.  

Dr Rachel Hilton, a renal consultant at Guy’s Hospital, home to the UK’s second largest kidney transplant service, and co-author in the study said: “Recipients of kidney transplants take immunosuppression drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent their own immune systems from rejecting the transplanted organ, even though these drugs may also bring serious health complications.  The findings of this study are really exciting, and we hope now that they have been validated, we will be able to screen patients for these markers, and perhaps identify small numbers who can safely withdraw or reduce their use of immunosuppressants.  It is vitally important though, that transplant recipients do not stop taking their immunosuppression on the back of these research findings, as any reduction in medication needs to be very carefully managed and clinically monitored.”

This study is part of a exciting and wide ranging programme of liver, kidney and bone marrow transplantation research taking place across King’s Health Partners (*see note 4 at end), one of the country’s first Academic Health Sciences Centres.

Professor Robert Lechler, Executive Director of King’s Health Partners and also a senior author of the study said: “At King’s Health Partners we are at the leading-edge of transplant research internationally, with a strong focus on translational research.  We are studying a number of areas, ranging from ways to improve the matching of patients to donor organs to improve the lifespan of donated organs, ways to better predict transplant outcomes, and to personalise the amount of immunosuppression individual transplant patients need to take.  This translational research will bring real benefits to our patients and others more further afield.”

Several sources of funding have allowed this project to be completed: the European Commission through the Indices of Tolerance Consortium (5^th Framework Programme) and RISET (Reprogramming the Immune System for the Establishment of Tolerance, 6^th Framework Programme), the Immune Tolerance Network, Medical Research Council, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, National Institute for Health Research, and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Note to editors:

The paper: Development of a crossplatform biomarker signature to detect renal transplant tolerance in humans, will be published in the 1 June issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. 

1. Contact: Andrea Ttofa, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust tel: 020 7188 5577 or 07753 614 288 or email: press@gstt.nhs.uk. Out of hours, please call our pager bureau on 0844 822 2888, ask for pager number 847704 and give the pager operator your message.
   Contact Kate Moore, King’s College London tel 020 7848 4334 or email: kate.moore@kcl.ac.uk
2. King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King’s is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
3. Guy’s and St Thomas’ provides around 850,000 patient contacts in acute and specialist hospital services every year. As one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the UK, it employs around 10,000 staff. The Trust works in partnership with the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Biomedical Sciences of King’s College London and other Higher Education Institutes to deliver high quality education and research. Website: www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk.
4. Guy’s and St Thomas’ is part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.
   King’s Health Partners is one of only five AHSCs in the UK and brings together an unrivalled range and depth of clinical and research expertise, spanning both physical and mental health. Our combined strengths will drive improvements in care for patients, allowing them to benefit from breakthroughs in medical science and receive leading edge treatment at the earliest possible opportunity. For more information, visit www.kingshealthpartners.org  
5. The comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’sand St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, is one of five National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive Biomedical Research Centres in England.With its strong focus on ‘translational research’ across seven research themes and a number of cross-cutting disciplines, it aims to take advances in basic medical research out of the laboratory and into the clinical setting to benefit patients at the earliest opportunity. Access to the uniquely diverse patient population of London and the south east enables it to drive forward research into a wide range of diseases and medical conditions. Website: www.biomedicalresearchcentre.org
6. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) provides the framework through which the research staff and research infrastructure of the NHS in England is positioned, maintained and managed as a national research facility. The NIHR provides the NHS with the support and infrastructure it needs to conduct first-class research funded by the Government and its partners alongside high-quality patient care, education and training. Its aim is to support outstanding individuals (both leaders and collaborators), working in world-class facilities (both NHS and university), conducting leading-edge research focused on the needs of patients. www.nihr.ac.uk
7. For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including the first antibiotic penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. www.mrc.ac.uk
8. Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity invests in improvements to the NHS in Lambeth and Southwark. The Charity’s funding helps support new services and innovations in the health services, and fund research infrastructure as well as the translation of laboratory research into clinical practice. Find out more on the Charity’s website: www.gsttcharity.org.uk.
9. The Immune Tolerance Network is an international research consortium that conducts clinical research into new immune tolerance therapies - highly targeted treatments that prevent harmful immune responses, while leaving the protective immune response unhindered. ITN research focuses on autoimmune diseases, islet, kidney and liver transplantation and allergy and asthma. The ITN is funded by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, with the support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. www.immunetolerance.org

Patient Ian Hartley, from Kent, became the first patient to undergo the surgery at King’s College Hospital last month. Mr Hartley was diagnosed with a brain tumour after seeking medical help following six months of mood swings and headaches.

The drug comes in the form of a powder which is dissolved in water and then drunk by the patient three hours prior to surgery. The chemical in the drug is ‘taken up’ by the cancerous cells in the brain which then show up as bright pink when put under a special light by surgeons. This enables surgeons to more easily distinguish between tumour cells and normal surrounding brain tissue.

King’s College Hospital, part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is only the second hospital in England to carry out brain surgery using the new technique, and the first in the Capital.

Mr Keyoumars Ashkan, Consultant Neurosurgeon at King’s College Hospital, carried out the procedure. He said:

“This is an exciting development for King’s College Hospital, and the patients we treat. The fact that patients can now help their surgeon by simply taking a small drug - with no major side-effects - is a big step forward. As a result, we can be more confident when differentiating between cancerous and normal brain tissue. Of course, we still need to exercise our judgement as surgeons when deciding how much of the tumour we take out - however, this technology will help us in the decision-making process.”

Mr Hartley, who lives in Paddock Wood and works at a car refurbishment plant, was brought to King’s College Hospital for surgery after scans at his local hospital showed he had a tumour in his brain. He said:

“I was behaving oddly, and experienced mood swings on a regular basis. My wife kept saying something wasn’t quite right, but it took me a while to realise it myself; fortunately, I went to get myself checked out.”

“Of course, I was apprehensive about the operation, but I knew I had to get it sorted. I am now recovering, and can now look forward to seeing my son get married later this year.”

King’s College Hospital is a major regional centre for neurosurgery, and treats more than 400 patients with brain tumours each year. The new technique being used at King’s College Hospital is an example of how research in the laboratory is being used to bring about real benefits for patients. This is one of the key aims of King’s Health Partners (KHP) Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a collaboration between King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

The research, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) identifies new targets for treatments that might prevent heart disease by slowing down the ageing of our arteries.

Professor Cathy Shanahan, from the Department of Cardiology at King’s College London, part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (ASHC) who led the research comments: ‘The number one risk factor for artery disease is age. Smooth muscle cells get old and damaged, and they can’t repair themselves any more.’ Her research investigates how ageing of cells in the artery walls leads to disease.

Clues about what happens as smooth muscle cells age came from studies of a rare disease called progeria. Progeria is caused by a genetic mutation that makes sufferers age very rapidly. People with progeria usually die of a heart attack or stroke around their early teens.

Premature ageing

Previous studies showed that progeria is caused by a mutation in a protein called prelamin A. The defect causes prelamin A to accumulate in cells and become toxic. The cells become unable to repair DNA damage, resulting in premature ageing. In the arteries, this leads to hardening and fat accumulation.

The new research shows that smooth muscle cells in older people’s arteries also build up excessive prelamin A.

Professor Shanahan explains: ‘What we’ve shown is that you don’t need to have the mutant protein for prelamin A to accumulate. It happens as part of the normal mechanism of ageing.

‘Lifestyle factors can put our cells under stress, making them accumulate this toxic protein that accelerates ageing in the arteries. This could be an important mechanism by which habits like smoking lead to heart disease.’

Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the BHF, said: ‘Fatty build-up in arteries leads to heart attacks and strokes, which together cause more than 140,000 deaths in the UK every year. This research shows that smooth muscle cells that become diseased and accumulate fats show biological signs of advanced ageing. If we can find ways to slow down this ageing process, it might help us develop new treatments for artery disease.’

King’s College London, part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), and Cicely Saunders International have combined forces to create a world-class research and care Institute which will improve the way in which care is given to the dying. It will bring together, for the first time in one building, clinicians, educators and researchers in palliative care, together with facilities for patients and carers.

HRH The Princess Royal, Chancellor of the University of London, officially opened the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care which is based at King’s College London Denmark Hill Campus, next to King’s College Hospital.

King’s College Hospital has a well-established multidisciplinary clinical palliative care team, which is now based within the Institute, facilitating improved integration with the academic department. A seven day a week visiting service is provided, including out of hours advice, to support teams across the hospital in delivering excellent clinical care to people with advanced disease and their families.

Palliative care focuses on relieving symptoms and enhancing quality of life for the patient, and on supporting the family and those close to them. Palliative care seeks to support and value the whole person, paying careful attention to physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs. Its purpose is to affirm life and to regard dying as a normal process, neither to hasten death nor prolong life.

Irene Higginson OBE, Director of the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Professor of Palliative Care at King’s College London and internationally renowned expert in the field, explains the vision behind the Institute: ‘We will promote collaboration and integration of research, teaching, and clinical activities on a scale never before achieved. This will include user involvement to promote evidence-based practice, and research and teaching driven by the needs of patients, families and clinical concerns.

‘We will enhance palliative care worldwide and seek to influence the lives of an estimated one billion people within 10 years of opening. Our aim is to improve the way that dying people are cared for and make a decent quality of life attainable, even at the end of life.’

The Institute will facilitate closer cooperation between academics and clinicians in palliative care and related disciplines from a wide range of local, national and international organisations, ensuring academic developments in research and education directly translate to clinical care quickly to benefit patients and families.

It will also provide opportunities to train healthcare professionals from the UK and overseas, thereby increasing the skill base and disseminating knowledge.

Professor Higginson continues: ‘The next challenge is to deliver the vision that Dame Cicely Saunders set us in the Institute. The need for palliative care is growing in all countries, and far outstrips supply. We will be working with others to try and discover better treatments, better care, and better support for patients and families, and to spread the best in practice.’

The Institute embraces the objectives and philosophy of palliative and hospice care. It has been named in honour of Dame Cicely Saunders. John McGrath, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Cicely Saunders International, spoke at the opening of the Institute, saying: ‘Today, we are moving a step forward in the historic journey that Dame Cicely started over sixty years ago. Cicely is recognized the world over as the founder of the modern hospice movement. … Our challenge is to ensure that we fulfil Cicely’s mission which in her words is “to ensure that patients and families feel they matter, even at the end of life.’