In category: Early Career Research

Lung cancer kills more people in the UK each year than any other cancer, accounting for 1 in 5 cancer deaths. Fewer than half the people diagnosed with lung cancer survive for a year after diagnosis, and only 1 in 5 survive for more than 5 years. These are pretty dismal statistics. One of the […]

Associate Professor Christopher Clark We know how to lower blood pressure with drugs,  and quite a lot about how health professionals can help people to treat their hypertension. (1) Evidence to support these interventions is well summarised in various international hypertension guidelines, which also reinforce lifestyle changes to lower blood pressure and reduce cardiovascular risk. […]

I’ve always enjoyed the regional SAPC conferences. Being very much at the smaller end of the conference spectrum, they are a great way to find out what’s going on in the local region, and offer an opportunity for early career researchers in particular to present work in a friendly and relaxed environment. The 2025 meeting […]

The answer to this question can often times seem scripted. There is usually a reference to a desire to stimulate lasting change in society, an altruistic aim to break frontiers of knowledge or a personal experience of a challenge that motivated quest for discovery. For me, I rather stumbled onto research during my primary medical […]

We know that the earlier cancer is diagnosed, the better the clinical outcomes are. Patients generally first present to General Practice with symptoms of undiagnosed cancer. However, in recent years there has been an expansion of clinical responsibility in other healthcare settings, and there has been a focus shift towards providing care to people closer […]

Written by Dr Luke Mounce From the 1st of November last year, my first big research project began with me as Chief Investigator, and I’d like to tell you all about it and my journey to get here! It’s called “CancerLearn” and aims to improve cancer diagnosis in people with learning difficulties. There are around […]

They say a tree falling in a forest, but with no-one to hear it, makes no sound. Well maybe, though I’ve always doubted it. What’s clear is that medical research, if it doesn’t change practice, makes no sound. In this spirit was a conference in London last month. I co-led a successful HTA research bid […]

Wow, it has been an amazing year, and my first full year as Director of APEx (Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care). I wanted to take this opportunity to give an overview of the year in some numbers. And there have been so many achievements over the past 12 months, that I am not going […]

I’m Nada Khan, a GP and an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer based within APEx.  I have recently been awarded a Wellcome Accelerator Award, which is a personal development award open to researchers of Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage to allow them to build their career and achieve the next stage after their PhD.   The great […]

Andrew, Celia, Neomi and Ayodele (left to right) The project: Clinical utility of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in identifying patients at risk of cancer diagnosis in primary care: a cohort study using routine electronic health records Research group: Sarah Bailey, Richard Neal, Sarah Price, Luke Mounce, Liz Down, Tanimola Martins, Elizabeth Shepherd, David Shotter, Celia Butler, […]