Translational Research > Liverpool Lung Project > Professor John Field

Professor John Field, PhD, FRCPath has a Personal Clinical Chair in Molecular Oncology at the University of Liverpool. He is a Visiting Professor at University College London, holds the post of Director of Research of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Research Programme, Chair of the EU-US Spiral CT collaborative group and PI for the UK Lung Cancer Screening Trial (UKLS). He is the principle investigator of the Liverpool Lung Project, a 10 year molecular epidemiological study into the early detection of lung cancer, funded by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. He is also PI on the large EU Early Lung Cancer study funded by the Commission. Both of these trials form part of the NCRI Lung Cancer clinical studies group’s portfolio. He is a member of the NCRI Lung Cancer Clinical Study Group and Chairs the Lung Cancer

Translational Sub-group. He is also heavily involved in the identification of molecular diagnostic markers in head and neck cancer and has led the team searching for the familial oesophageal cancer gene (TOC) over the past decade, which has been funded by the MRC, CRC and NWCRF. Professor Field is the author of over 190 international (peer reviewed) papers in his area of expertise and has given more than 200 presentations at medical and scientific conferences around the world. Contact Details Tel: 0151 794 8901 Email: J.K.Field@liverpool.ac.uk

Education and qualifications

2001: FRCPath Royal College of Pathologists Eng.

1995: MRCPath Royal College of Pathologists Eng.

1985: BDS University of Liverpool.

1977: PhD (Genetics), University of Wales.

1974: BA (Genetics), Trinity College, Dublin.

Appointments

1998 - present: Personal Clinical Chair in Molecular Oncology, The University of Liverpool, School of Cancer Studies.

External positions

2011: Chair of the IARC Early Detection and Prevention Committee.

2010 - present: CI of UKLS trial.

2008-2010: CI of  UKLS (UK Lung Cancer Screening Feasibility & Protocol Development trial)

2008 - present: Respiratory Disorders Faculty Advisory Board for the new F1000 Medicine Report

2007: MRC - Member of the College of Experts- MRC Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board

2005 - present: PI for the UK Spiral CT Collaborative Screening Trial development team

2005-2009: NCRI Translational Studies Group Committee

2005 - present: Chair NCRI Lung Cancer Clinical Studies: Translational subgroup.

2005 - present: IASLC Prevention & Early Detection Committee

2004 - present: ILLCO Committee

2002 - present: Scientific Committee - Yorkshire Cancer Research

2001-06: Co-ordinator for the EU-US Spiral CT Early Lung Cancer Detection Group

2003-05: NCRI NCTR Advisory panel on Tissue

2000-03: NCRI  Lung Cancer Screening Trial Working Party

2000-03: NCRI Co-ordinating Committee on Cancer Research (UK CCCR) - Lung Cancer Group 

2002 - present: Honorary Consultant RLBUH Trust, Liverpool

2000-3: UKFGI Research Sub-Committee

2000-3: UK Forum for Genetics and Insurance  Executive Committee (UK FGI)

1997 - present: Honorary Consultant Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital, Liverpool

1997-2000: Co-ordinator for the EU Early Lung Cancer Detection Group.

1997 - present: Director of Research,  Roy Castle International Centre for Lung Cancer Research.  
  
1994-97: Associate Director of the Roy Castle International Centre for Lung Cancer Research.    
              
1996: Member of the Chemopreventive Working Group, Cancer Research Campaign.

Molecular Biomarkers Group
The Molecular Biomarkers group (led by Dr Lakis Liloglou) focus in cancer epigenetics. Dr Liloglou has pioneered the use of Pyrosequencing in DNA methylation detection in the UK and has recently developed a novel DNA methylation analysis technique utilising dideoxy-terminator analogues, in collaboration with Applied Biosystems (Liloglou T & Finkelnburg B, Provisional patent on Nucleic Acid Methylation Analysis, US Patent office 61/264,626 / 25/11/2009). Our research interests focus on the mechanisms of epigenetic deregulation in cancers of the respiratory tract and their association to genomic instability and retrotransposition. In parallel, particular effort is given to develop epigenetic biomarkers for cancer diagnostics (lung and oral tumours)

Our core objectives include: The in-depth understanding of the genetic and epigenetic instability in lung cancer The identification of the most frequent abnormalities in primary lung tumours The development of robust molecular assays able to detect these abnormalities in very high dilution in clinical specimens such as sputum, bronchial washings, buccal scrapes, plasma etc.

Genetic Predisposition to Lung Cancer
LLP took part in a large international lung cancer consortium which undertook a genome-wide association study, eventually screening 17,000 individuals, in order to identify SNPs that may increase the risk for lung cancer development. This study has revealed a number of polymorphisms in certain loci that are significantly associated to tobacco addiction and lung cancer development.

Epidemiology Group
The LLP Epidemiology group undertakes epidemiological and statistical research investigating causative factors and determinants of lung cancer. This activity provides support towards advancing the body of knowledge on early detection and prevention of lung cancer, thereby improving patient survival from the disease. The group has conducted and/or participated in a variety of epidemiological research projects focusing on a wide range of themes including those of risk modelling, screening and prevention and genetic susceptibility.

Our research utilises the LLP recruited participants from the case-control arm, the population cohort and the selected high risk follow-up participants, and those from independent external studies. The research area of the epidemiology group includes:

The development, validation and refinement of the LLP risk prediction model for estimating an individual’s absolute risk of developing lung cancer within a 5-year period

The incorporation into the risk assessment model of SNPs from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) as well as epigenetic biomarkers in clinical specimens such as sputum and plasma.

Follow up of high risk individuals within the LLP prospective cohort.

Expression & methylation profiling and next generation sequencing in lung cancer.

1. Prediction of progressive disease in lung cancer

The risk of recurrence, metastasis or second primary lung cancers is a major issue in individuals who have had a lung cancer. The identification of these patients with a poor outcome has been the basis of a number of large research programmes. We are now in a position to take this forward and contribute to the early detection of lung cancer reappearing in individuals who have had a successful surgical resection. The research group have already made a significant contribution to this field through the EUELC collaboration.

The EU Early Lung cancer (EUELC) collaboration was funded by an EU Framework V grant 2002-06 involving 12 centres across Europe. Professor Field is the PI of this Consortium.

The aims of this study are:
•           Utilise the current lung cancer expression datasets within the RCF Lung cancer Programme, as well as collaborators datasets.
•           Integrate the new next generation sequencing datasets from the LLP tumours into the progressive disease (PD) v disease free (DF) analysis.
•           Validate the major genes in LLP tumour datasets utilising Real time PCT and Pyrosequencing platforms.
•           Access to the major dataset from the second generation, expression and methylation information from the major EU FP7 collaborative studies EU (CURELUNG and LACOS) Programme.

2. Molecular profiling of COPD and lung cancer for early diagnosis.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the UK and worldwide. Treatment of lung cancer and COPD has lagged behind that of other diseases, despite the fact that inflammation is recognised to play a major role in the development and progression of both diseases.   They share common environmental risk factors and COPD increases the risk of lung cancer up to 4.5 fold.

Hypothesis: Utilisation of focused exon sequencing in lung cancer, with and without a history of COPD, will identify the different pathways involved in their pathogenesis.

1.         Utilising a focused approach, identify the mutational profile, SNP’s and allelic imbalance of lung cancer specimens utilising Exon sequencing on the SOLiD platform in order to identify critical genes and pathways.

2.         Ascertain whether patients with a history of COPD who (i) have no history of lung cancer, (ii) develop lung cancer; i.e. composition of the genomic sequence with information on SNP data, mutations and allelic imbalance profiles.

3.         Investigate if specific Pathways are involved in the development of lung cancer from individuals with and without COPD.

This work is being undertaken with Professor Neil Hall, Dr Keith Ashelford and Dr Olga Vasieva, University of Liverpool and Professor Andy Brass, University of Manchester.

Selected peer reviewed publications (190 total):

Raji OY, Agbaje OF, Duffy SW, Cassidy A, Field JK. Incorporation of a genetic factor into an epidemiologic model for prediction of individual risk of lung cancer: the Liverpool Lung Project. Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa). 2010 May;3(5):664-9. Epub 2010 Apr 27.

Landi MT, Chatterjee N, et al Field JK, et al. Caporaso NE. A genome-wide association study of lung cancer identifies a region of chromosome 5p15 associated with risk for adenocarcinoma. Am J Hum Genet. 2009 Nov;85(5):679-91. Epub 2009 Oct 15

Cassidy A, Balsan J, Vesin A, Wu X, Liloglou T, Brambilla C, Timsit JF, Field JK; EUELC Consortium. Cancer diagnosis in first-degree relatives and non-small cell lung cancer risk: Results from a multi-centre case-control study in Europe. Eur J Cancer. 2009 May 29.

Duffy SW, Raji OY, Agbaje OF, Allgood PC, Cassidy A, Field JK.  Use of lung cancer risk models in planning research and service programmes in CT screening for lung cancer Expert Reviews in Anti Cancer Therapies (10):1467-72, 2009

McKay JD, Hung RJ, Gaborieau V, Boffetta P,  et al. Field JK,  et al. Lathrop M, Brennan P. Lung cancer susceptibility locus at 5p15.33. Nat Genet. 2008 Dec;40(12):1404-6. Epub 2008 Nov 2

Field JK. Lung cancer risk models come of age. Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa). 2008 Sep;1(4):226-8.

Hung RJ, Christiani DC, et al Field JK, et al, Boffetta P, Brennan P. International Lung Cancer Consortium: pooled analysis of sequence variants in DNA repair and cell cycle pathways. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 Nov;17(11):3081-9.

Smith RA, Field JK, Duffy SW. A global approach to cancer-screening trials. Lancet Oncol. 2008 Oct;9(10):908-9. Epub 6. 2008 Sep 19. No abstract available.

Shivapurkar N, Stastny V, Okumura N, Girard L, Xie Y, Prinsen C, Thunnissen FB, Wistuba II, Czerniak B, Frenkel E, Roth JA, Liloglou T, Xinarianos G, Field JK, Minna JD, Gazdar AF. Cytoglobin, the newest member of the globin family, functions as a tumor suppressor gene. Cancer Res. 2008 Sep 15;68(18):7448-56.

Hall GL, Shaw RJ, Field EA, Rogers SN, Sutton DN, Woolgar JA, Lowe D, Liloglou T, Field JK, Risk JM p16 Promoter methylation is a potential predictor of malignant transformation in oral epithelial dysplasia. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 Aug;17(8):2174-9.

Field JK, Duffy SW. Lung cancer screening: the way forward. Br J Cancer. 2008 Aug 19;99(4):557-62. Epub 2008 Jul 29. Review.

Tanney A, Oliver GR, Farztdinov V, Kennedy RD, Mulligan JM, Fulton CE, Farragher SM, Field JK, Johnston PG, Harkin DP, Proutski V, Mulligan KA. Generation of a non-small cell lung cancer transcriptome microarray. BMC Med Genomics. 2008 May 30;1:20.

Hung RJ, McKay JD, Gaborieau  et al.  Field JK et al.  Lathrop M, Brennan P. A susceptibility locus for lung cancer maps to nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit genes on 15q25.  Nature. 2008 Apr 3;452(7187):633-7.

Cassidy A, Myles JP, van Tongeren M, Page RD, Liloglou T, Duffy SW, Field JK The LLP risk model: an individual risk prediction model for lung cancer. Br J Cancer. 2008 Jan 29;98(2):270-6. Epub 2007 Dec 18.

Gorlov IP, Meyer P, Liloglou T, Myles J, Boettger MB, Cassidy A, Girard L, Minna JD, Fischer R, Duffy S, Spitz MR, Haeussinger K, Kammerer S, Cantor C, Dierkesmann R, Field JK, Amos CI. Seizure 6-like (SEZ6L) gene and risk for lung cancer. Cancer Res. 2007 Sep 1;67(17):8406-11.

Ehrich M, Field JK, Liloglou T, Xinarianos G, Oeth P, Nelson MR, Cantor CR, van den Boom D. Cytosine methylation profiles as a molecular marker in non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer Res. 2006 Nov 15;66(22):10911-8.

Cassidy A, Myles JP, Duffy SW, Liloglou T, Field JK. Family history and risk of lung cancer: age-at-diagnosis in cases and first-degree relatives. Br J Cancer. 2006 Nov 6;95(9):1288-90. 

Shaw RJ, Akufo-Tetteh EK, Risk JM, Field JK, Liloglou T. Methylation enrichment pyrosequencing: combining the specificity of MSP with validation by pyrosequencing. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006 Jun 28;34(11):e78.

Xinarianos G, McRonald FE, Risk JM, Bowers NL, Nikolaidis G, Field JK, Liloglou T. Frequent genetic and epigenetic abnormalities contribute to the deregulation of cytoglobin in non-small cell lung cancer. Hum Mol Genet. 2006 Jul 1;15(13):2038-44. Epub 2006 May 12.

 McRonald FE, Liloglou T, Xinarianos G, Hill L, Rowbottom L, Langan JE, Ellis A, Shaw JM, Field JK, Risk JM. Down-regulation of the cytoglobin gene, located on 17q25, in tylosis with oesophageal cancer (TOC): evidence for trans-allele repression. Hum Mol Genet. 2006 Apr 15;15(8):1271-7.

Research Funding (selection):

Liverpool Lung Project - programme award 2008-2010. Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Programme Grant - £1,913,370

Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (LECMC) (with Professor B K Park, Professor J Neoptolemos, Dr P Clark, Dr E Costello, Dr N Kitteringham) CR-UK & UK Department of Health. Grant awarded (2006-2010), £124,023 in first year.

A Pilot Study of Lung Cancer Early Detection and Clinical Intervention in Primary Care. Knowsley PCT. Grant awarded: £75,500 (2006-09).

UKLS UK -  Lung cancer Screening – Feasibility & protocol development. HTA. Grant awarded: £153,500 (2008-10).

UK Lung Cancer Screening feasibility & Protocol development. HTA £155,000 (2008-2009).

Chinese LLP. Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Research Network (M&CCRN) for Flexibility and Sustainability Funding (FSF) 36,550 (2009-10).

Risk Stratification: Modelling and accessibility. Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University NHS Hospitals Trust, NIHR F&S Funding. (with W Greenhalf, A Taktak, S Coupland, E Costello, B Damato) (2010) £45,000.

Validation of DNA Methylation biomarkers for early lung cancer diagnosis in case-control populations and in primary care high risk population. CR-UK . £59,671 (year 1).

A Nanoscale Artificial Nose to easily detect Volatile Biomarkers at Early stages of Lung Cancer and Related Genetic Mutations FP7-HEALTH-2010- Awarded to Liverpool €980,898 (2010 – 2014).

Determining (epi)genetic therapeutic signatures for improving lung cancer prognosis. FP7-HEALTH-2010-Proposal No: 258677-2 Acroym CURELUNG Grant award to Liverpool €298,000 (2010-2013)

A genome-wide study of lung cancer in never smokers. NIH Proposal to form a Consortium. Grant awarded To Liverpool $88,453.91 (2010–2015)

The development and validation of an ethnic specific lung cancer risk prediction model for the Liverpool Chinese community. Liverpool PCT PhD post Grant awarded £39,870. (2010-2013).