The CM-Path workshop ‘Current and Future Challenges for Innovative Biomarker Development’ was organised by Dr Maggie Cheang and held on 12 April at the Royal Society of Medicine. The day brought together a number of medical specialities including pathologists, oncologists, statisticians, translational scientists and others. Consumer representatives were also in attendance on the day challenging speakers with new concepts and ideas, and providing a much needed patient perspective.

The day had a special focus on new technologies that can be used on FFPE samples including proteomics, RNA sequencing and DNA analysis. The afternoon highlighted the development of biomarker studies for immuno-oncology approaches. Professor Mitch Dowsett from the Institute of Cancer Research delivered a notable presentation highlighting the lessons learnt from a career delivering pioneering biomarker development studies in breast cancer.

The CM-Path team will now be building a suite of guidance documents to help researchers improve the quality of biomarker development studies in the future. The second CM-Path biomarker workshop in this series is being planned for early 2018, further information will be available in due course.

To download the slides and see a summary of the day below.

Proteomics applications on FFPE material, Dr Paul Huang

Gene Expression Biomarker Discovery for immuno-oncology studies, Dr Alex Watkins

Integration of DNA, RNA and protein expression profiling for tumour classification, Dr Maggie Cheang

Lessons Learnt from Successful Biomarker Discovery Studies, Professor Mitch Dowsett

What are Biomarkers? – Prognostic Vs. Predictive Biomarkers, Dr Nuria Porta

Developing immune stratification for cancer, Professor Gareth Thomas

Biomarkers for Immuno-Oncology, Dr Eddie Blair

Biomarkers – Lost in Translation: A Regulatory Perspective, Dr Rosa Guiliani