Prof. John Marshall, Barts Cancer Institute, London, UK

Host: Johanna Ivaska

Prof. John Marshall has been studying the biology of tumour invasion for the last 25 years with a particular interest in the contributions made by the principal cell-matrix adhesion molecules called integrins. Prof Marshall’s group have identified integrin αvβ6, an epithelial-specific integrin not detectable on most normal tissues, as an important new therapeutic target in many cancers. In addition to understanding the function of the αvβ6 receptor in cancer, his group recently launched a clinical trial, in collaboration with Imanova to test the efficacy of an αvβ6-specific peptide for imaging solid cancers.

Selected publications

Raab-Westphal S, Marshall JF, Goodman SL. Integrins as Therapeutic Targets: Successes and Cancers. 2017 Cancers (Basel) 9(9).

Whilding LM, Parente-Pereira AC, Zabinski T, Davies DM, Petrovic RM, Kao YV, Saxena SA, Romain A, Costa-Guerra JA, Violette S, Itamochi H, Ghaem-Maghami S, Vallath S, Marshall JF, Maher J. Targeting of Aberrant αvβ6 Integrin Expression in Solid Tumors Using Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Engineered T Cells. (2017) Mol Ther. 25(1):259-273

Moore KM, Thomas GJ, Duffy SW et al. Therapeutic targeting of integrin αvβ6 in breast cancer. (2014) J Natl Cancer Inst vol. 106, (8)

Allen MD, Thomas GJ, Clark S et al. Altered microenvironment promotes progression of preinvasive breast cancer: myoepithelial expression of αvβ6 integrin in DCIS identifies high-risk patients and predicts recurrence. (2014) Clin Cancer Res (2) 344-357

Morgan MR, Jazayeri M, Ramsay AG, Thomas GJ, Boulanger MJ, Hart IR, Marshall JF. Psoriasin (S100A7) associates with integrin β6 subunit and is required for αvβ6-dependent carcinoma cell invasion. (2011) Oncogene 30(12):1422-35

Saha A, Ellison D, Thomas GJ, Vallath S, Mather SJ, Hart IR and Marshall JF. High resolution in vivo imaging of breast cancer by targeting the pro-invasive integrin αvβ6. (2010) J Path. 222:52-63