Wendy Atkin

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File:Professor Wendy Atkin OBE.jpg
Professor Wendy Atkin OBE
Professor Wendy Atkin
Died2 October 2018 (aged 71)
Alma materUniversity College London
Columbia University
Scientific career
InstitutionsSt Mary's Hospital, London
Imperial College London

Wendy Sheila Atkin OBE (1947 - October 2, 2018)[1] was an emeritus Professor of Gastrointestinal Epidemiology at Imperial College London.

Early life and education

Atkin studied public health at Columbia University, which she graduated in 1985.[2] She joined University College London for her graduate studies, where she researched the long-term risk of colorectal cancer following the removal of adenomas.[2]

Career

Atkin joined the Colorectal Cancer Unit at Cancer Research UK in St Mark's Hospital, and was made deputy director in 1997.[2] She was made an senior lecturer at Imperial College London in 1997, reader in 2000 and professor in 2004.

From 1994 she worked with Jane Wardle on a trial of flexible sigmoidoscopy that included endoscopic examination of the colon, reporting that 40 % of colorectal cancers could be prevented by this intervention.[3][4] She compared the screening to a Faecal occult blood (FOB) test.[5] In 2008 she moved to St Mary's Hospital, London, where she established the Cancer Screening and Prevention Research Group.[2] The group researches bowel cancer and, ultimately, aims to reduce the number of people who die from the disease.[6] Their 2010 paper outlining the results of the UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening Trial was the most frequently cited paper in The Lancet that year.[7][8][9][10][11][12] The landmark study was a randomised controlled trial of almost 400,000 adults across 14 areas in the UK.[13][14] If there were any polyps, people were referred for a colonoscopy.[15] The strategy was rolled out by the UK National Screening Committee in 2011 and achieved complete population coverage in 2016.[16][17] This was achieved with a £60 million investment from the UK government. It is estimated to prevent 5,000 cancer diagnoses and 3,000 deaths a year.[16] They found an increased risk in bowel polyps from eating red meat.[18] They examined the incidence and mortality for the following 17 years, finding that people involved in the screening had a 41 % lower mortality.[19][20][21] The bowel cancer screening test BowelScope can prevent 35 % of bowel cancers.[22][23]

Atkin went on to create a Special Interest Group Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiologists 1 (SIGGAR1), which analysed the effectiveness of virtual colonoscopy.[24][25] They found it was less invasive and more effective at finding precancerous polyps and bowel cancer.[26] She researched the optimum timing of surveillance strategies for people who were at high risk of bowl cancer.[26] Atkin established a patient-friendly process that would invite, screen and follow-up the whole population.[27] She found that patients at risk of developing bowel cancer benefitted significantly from a follow-up colonoscopy.[28][29][30]

In 2013 she was made an Order of the British Empire for services to Bowel Cancer Prevention.[31] She was an expert advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidelines for Colonoscopic Surveillance.[2] She served on several advisory committees and boards.[32] She retired from Imperial College London in August 2018 and became a was made Emeritus Professor.[6] She died on October 2, 2018.

Awards

References

  1. ^ Obituary: Professor Wendy Atkin
  2. ^ a b c d e "Home - Emeritus Professor Wendy Atkin". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  3. ^ Jarvis, Martin (2015-11-24). "Jane Wardle obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  4. ^ Atkin, Wendy. "UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening" (PDF). National Archives. Retrieved 2018-10-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ "Bowel cancer success predicted". 2003-03-31. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  6. ^ a b "Professor Wendy Atkin Retires - Surgery and Cancer Blog". Surgery and Cancer Blog. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  7. ^ "Bowel test 'slashes cancer deaths'". nhs.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  8. ^ "Bowel screening 'revolution' could slash cancer rate". New Scientist. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  9. ^ Blom, Johannes (2010-08-01). "Once-only flexible sigmoidoscopy screening for adults aged 55–64 years old reduces the incidence of colorectal cancer and colorectal cancer deaths". BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine: ebmed1104. doi:10.1136/ebm1104. ISSN 2515-446X. PMID 20688846.
  10. ^ "Honours and Memberships - Emeritus Professor Wendy Atkin". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  11. ^ "Boost for bowel cancer spending". BBC News. 2010-10-03. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  12. ^ "Inclusion of flexible sigmoidoscopy in the UK Bowel Cancer Screening Programme". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  13. ^ "REF Case study search". impact.ref.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  14. ^ "Bowel test 'slashes cancer deaths'". nhs.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  15. ^ Grice, Elizabeth (2010-12-06). "On the trail of a common killer". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  16. ^ a b c "Professor Wendy Atkin | The Academy of Medical Sciences". acmedsci.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  17. ^ Atkin, Wendy S. (2006-03-30). "Impending or pending? The national bowel cancer screening programme". BMJ. 332 (7544): 742. doi:10.1136/bmj.38797.494757.47. ISSN 0959-8138. PMID 16554333.
  18. ^ "EPIC-Norfolk Collaborators: Researchers". www.srl.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  19. ^ Atkin, Wendy; Wooldrage, Kate; Parkin, D Maxwell; Kralj-Hans, Ines; MacRae, Eilidh; Shah, Urvi; Duffy, Stephen; Cross, Amanda J (2017-04). "Long term effects of once-only flexible sigmoidoscopy screening after 17 years of follow-up: the UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening randomised controlled trial". The Lancet. 389 (10076): 1299–1311. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30396-3. ISSN 0140-6736. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "A one-off bowel scope helps prevent bowel cancer, but it's taking time to reach everyone eligible". Cancer Research UK - Science blog. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  21. ^ "One-off bowel scope cuts cancer risk for at least 17 years". www.nihr.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  22. ^ Association, Press (2017-02-22). "New screening test cuts bowel cancer risk by a third, study finds". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  23. ^ Healthcare, Imperial College (2015-02-06), Bowel Cancer and the work of Professor Wendy Atkin at Imperial College London, retrieved 2018-10-06
  24. ^ Atkin, Wendy S (2013-01-17). "Study of colonoscopic surveillance intervals after removal of colorectal adenomas". http://isrctn.org/>. doi:10.1186/ISRCTN02411483. Retrieved 2018-10-06. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  25. ^ "CT scans are the best alternative to colonoscopy to investigate bowel cancer | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  26. ^ a b "Research - Emeritus Professor Wendy Atkin". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  27. ^ "Developing the bowel cancer screening programme – Imperial College London". The Russell Group. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  28. ^ "Follow-up colonoscopies associated with a significantly lower incidence of bowel cancer". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  29. ^ "Colonoscopy lowers rates of bowel cancer in some patients with intermediate risk polyps". Bowel Cancer UK. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  30. ^ "This one-off bowel cancer test could save thousands of lives". Good Housekeeping. 2017-02-24. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  31. ^ "Queen's birthday honours list 2013: OBE". the Guardian. 2013-06-14. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  32. ^ "Honours and Memberships - Emeritus Professor Wendy Atkin". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  33. ^ a b "Principal Investigator". www.csprg.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  34. ^ "Bowel Cancer Screening: 23 Nov 2011: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
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