Richard Egan

PhD Candidate
Teaching Fellow
Department of General Practice and Preventive & Social Medicine University of Otago

Dr Nuala Helsby

Senior Lecturer
Auckland Cancer Research Network
University of Auckland

Nuala’s research looks at how cancer may alter the way a patients body processes cancer drugs.

Some chemotherapy drugs are processed in the liver by a particular enzyme. The level of this enzyme varies from person to person. Nuala’s research has identified a genetic change in a large number of cancer sufferers which makes this enzyme not so effective and they become poor processes of cancer drugs. This may mean that in these people some chemotherapy drugs do not work as well.

In a continued study Nuala is researching to see if poor processing in the liver also occurs in patients at diagnosis of cancer and if there are any changes as the disease progresses. These changes in body processing could influence how each patient responds to the drugs over the course of treatment.

Dr Euphemia Leung

Senior Research Fellow
Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre
University of Auckland

One million women worldwide are diagnosed annually with breast cancer. Tamoxifen is the efficient drug treatment for this cancer. However, one third of women develop resistance to Tamoxifen during treatment and their tumours become more aggressive.

Euphemia’s research concentrates on two breast cancer cell lines displaying varying degrees of resistance after exposure to Tamoxifen. Euphemia hopes to extend her knowledge in understanding drug resistance in breast cancer and contributing to improved treatment strategies for breast cancer.

Visit the Genesis Oncology Trust website.