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Angela Casbard   MSc BSc

Angela Casbard

(she/her)

MSc BSc

Deputy Director of Cancer Division and Senior Research Fellow - Statistics

School of Medicine

Email
CasbardAC@cardiff.ac.uk
Campuses
Neuadd Meirionnydd, Room 6th Floor, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4YS

Overview

I am Deputy Director for the Cancer Division and Senior Research Fellow in statistics at the Centre for Trials Research. My research portfolio includes trials in a wide range of cancer sites, including skin cancer (SCC-AFTER), acute myeloid leukaemia (OPTIMISE), peritoneal metstases from colorectal, ovarian and stomach cancer (PICCOS), breast cancer (ZICE, FAKTION, FURVA), lung cancer & mesothelioma (QuicDNA, PIN, VIM, SKOPOS), bladder (TOUCAN, SUCCINCT) and gynaecolgical cancers (CEBOC, COPELIA).  My interests include designing more efficient and adaptive platform and master protocol basket/umbrella designs that do not necessarily focus on one particular cancer site. A few of my recent trials have employed group-sequential and multi-arm-multi-stage methodology. 

A lot of my work focusses on developing trial design ideas with clinicians, from the initial concept to the funding applications, and then overseeing the scientific and statistical aspects of funded trials, through to the publication stage.

 

Publication

2023

2022

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2009

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Articles

Conferences

Research

My interests lie in design and analysis of a variety of oncology trials. Recently I have particular interst in the benefits of nutrition and exercise in improving outcomes for cancer patients, and hope to gain research funding for this work in the future. 

I'm currently working on two active gynaecological trials: the COPELIA trial is evaluating whether cediranib and olaparib can improve time to cancer progression in endometrial cancer; the CEBOC trial is investigating the safety of treating ovarian cancer patients who at high risk of bowel obstruction with cediranib. I also oversee the statistical aspects of the CORINTH trial, which is an early phase trial assessing the safety of pembrolizumab in HPV related anal cancer, and the ADVANCE study which is evaluating the use of a machine that can be used in clinic to check the blood counts of chemotherapy  patients and look for signs of neutropenic sepsis.

My interests also include breast cancer, the ZICE trial was a large phase 3 trial which evaluated whether oral ibandronate tablets were not inferior to IV zoledronate in the treatment of bone metastases in breast cancer patients. We were not able to conclude non-inferiority, and IV zoledronate remained the preferred treatment, but oral ibandronate could still be considered for patients wanting to avoid IV infusions. The FAKTION trial is a phase 2 trial in ER positive breast cancer patients evaluatign whether a new treatment capivasertib could improve time to disease progression when added to fulvestrant hormone therapy, the main results published in 2020 showed that the time to disease progression was longer in those patients receiving capivasertib. We are currently looking at the longer term follow-up data of FAKTION patients, to see whether the capivasertib also improves overall survival, and whether patients with certain gene mutations in the tumour, related to the AKT signalling pathway, are more likely to benefit from treatment. A similar trial FURVA, looking at whether the addition of vandetanib to fulvestrant hormone therapy can improve time to disease progression was also conducted in patients with ER positive breast cancer and we plan to publish the results this year. Both FAKTION and FURVA trials were conducted in collaboration with AstraZeneca, and were additionally funded and endorsed by CRUK. 

Biography

Career Overview:

Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University

Deputy Director - Cancer Division

Nov 2020 – Current 

Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University

Senior Research Fellow (Statistics)

Feb 2007 – Current 

MRC Clinical Trials Unit, London

Statistician

Jan 2002 – Jan 2007

 

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Statistician Oct 2000 – Dec 2001

Imperial College, Hammersmith Hospital

Research Assistant Dec 1997 – Sep 1999

Qualitfications:

MSc Medical Statistics

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,

1999-2000

BSc Biochemistry (Medical)

Royal Holloway, University of London

1994-1997 

Committees and reviewing

  • Current independent member (statistician) on the CRUK Glasgow CTU Glasgow Umbrella Trials Steering Committee 2
  • Current independent member of C- ProMeta 1 Trial Steering committee

  • Current member of Blood Cancer UK Clinical Trials Review Committee 

Supervisions

I have supervised intercalated BSc and MSc projects, where students analysed quality of life and genetic data from our trials and linked it to the trial's clinical databases.

Research themes

Specialisms

  • clinical trials
  • Oncology and carcinogenesis
  • Statistics