Clinical Research Fellow - Lymphoma

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

ORGANISATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
This post is for 40 hours per week to provide clinical research fellow support to The Christie Lymphoma Team. It is based at the main Christie Hospital site in the department of Medical Oncology and the NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF). This position is designed for individuals who wish to increase their experience in early-phase clinical trial research and/or lymphoma and are interested in to pursuing a specialist career in medical oncology, haematology or clinical oncology and clinically-orientated research.

Role Purpose
The clinical research fellow post at the Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will support early-phase clinical research in lymphoma under the supervision of Dr Kim Linton and Dr Beth Phillips. The post holder will be involved in all aspects of care for patients enrolled on early-phase clinical trials and will work in close liaison with other members of the multidisciplinary team.

The role will support the Lymphoma Research Team:

The Lymphoma Research Team aims to develop and perform internationally competitive, practice-changing studies of relevance to patients with lymphoma, and to enhance our existing national and international reputation.  In 2022-2023, we had the largest portfolio of open lymphoma trials in the UK, both commercial and non-commercial, and were the second-highest UK recruiter to commercial studies. Recent successes include the first UK site to open and recruit a patient to the NX-5948-301 BTK degrader trial, top UK recruiter in the ME-401 trial and leading the field in new bispecific antibody trials as first site to screen a patient for Janssen LYM001 trial, first UK site to consent a patient to GCT3013-02 using epcoritamab in combination regimens and first site globally to dose a patient with subcutaneous odronextamab. The team also actively contributes to the UK Lymphoma Research Group (formally NCRI) as sub-group chairs/representatives and lead on a number of non-commercial trials. Examples include the ongoing international phase 3 RADAR trial, evaluating brentuximab vedotin as frontline treatment for early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma, and the randomised phase 2 REFRACT trial evaluating multiple novel therapies such as epcoritamab-lenalidomide against standard of care. Members of the team are regularly invited to present trial data at major international conferences (ICML, ASH, ISHL, EHA), have authored/co-authored trial publications in high-impact journals (NEJM, J Clin Onc, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Haematology, Blood) and have acted as expert reviewers for NICE and EORTC. The team has an expanding portfolio of immunotherapy trials, with a major interest in developing bispecific antibody and CAR-T therapy for lymphoma, collaborating closely with the advanced therapies team within the Trust

In 2012, data from named-patient studies of brentuximab vedotin performed at the Christie were used in submissions to the European Medicines Agency resulting in provisional licensing of the drug that can now be used across the EU in patients with relapsed/refractory CD30+ve lymphomas. Updated results of the same patient cohort were used in 2015 to support continued access to brentuximab vedotin via the Cancer Drugs Fund and was also used as evidence to NICE who undertook a review of the drug in 2016. This work was undertaken by a previous research fellow under supervision by consultant colleagues illustrating the importance of this role to the Lymphoma team. 

One of our recent lymphoma fellows wrote the protocol, information sheet and consent form for a highly innovative study (REACT) evaluating the potential role of wearable biosensors in patients at high risk of sepsis, revised a paper now submitted for publication and was successful in a highly competitive and prestigious NIHR Clinical Fellow application.

Currently there are there are 32 lymphoma studies open and recruiting, with 32 in active follow up and a further 28 in feasibility or set-up stage.  Of our 32 open and recruiting studies, around 40% are phase I/II studies demonstrating our commitment to early-phase research, and collaboration with ECMC network.  Furthermore, referral of patients with haematological malignancies from outside of Manchester is an increasing feature of our practice with the number patients referred for consideration of clinical trials growing year on year.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Christie Lymphoma Team provides expert treatment for patients with a wide range of lymphoma subtypes. Level 2-4 specialist care is provided for the Southern sector of the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cancer network (GMCCN) (population 900,000). Close clinical collaboration exists between The Christie and the other Haematology Departments of the South sector of the GMCC Network: Macclesfield District General Hospital and Stepping Hill Hospital. Through the weekly sector MDT, virtually hosted at Christie, all newly diagnosed and relapsing lymphoma patients are discussed and all patients requiring level 2-4 therapy are referred to The Christie. There are also longstanding referral pathways from Lancashire, North Staffordshire, Chester and North Wales. In addition, the team works closely with the haematology transplant unit to provide tertiary care for stem cell transplantation to the wider North West of England and Wales (population 6 million+).