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Wendy Atkin

Wendy Sheila Atkin OBE FMedSci (née Green; 5 April 1947 – 2 October 2018)[1][2] was Professor of Gastrointestinal Epidemiology at Imperial College London.

Early life and education

Aitken was born in London on 5 April 1947 to Gella (née Binder) and David Green.[3] She studied pharmacy at the University of London gaining a bachelor's degree in 1968.[1][3] She studied public health at Columbia University, which she graduated in 1985 with a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in 1984.[4] She joined University College London for her graduate studies, where she researched the long-term risk of colorectal cancer following the removal of adenomas and was awarded a PhD in 1991.[5][4]

Career and research

Atkin joined the Colorectal Cancer Unit at Cancer Research UK in St Mark's Hospital, and was made deputy director in 1997.[4] She was made a senior lecturer at Imperial College London in 1997, reader in 2000[citation needed] and professor in 2004.[citation needed]

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.[6][7] She compared the screening to a Faecal occult blood (FOB) test.[8] In 2008 she moved to St Mary's Hospital, London, where she established the Cancer Screening and Prevention Research Group.[4] The group researches bowel cancer and, ultimately, aims to reduce the number of people who die from the disease.[9] Their 2010 paper outlining the results of the UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening Trial was the most frequently cited paper in The Lancet that year.[10][11][12][13][14][15] The landmark study was a randomised controlled trial of almost 400,000 adults across 14 areas in the UK.[16][17] If there were any polyps, people were referred for a colonoscopy.[18] The strategy was rolled out by the UK National Screening Committee in 2011 and was expected to achieved complete population coverage in 2016.[19][20] This was achieved with a £60 million investment from the UK government. It's estimated to prevent 5,000 cancer diagnoses and 3,000 deaths a year.[19] They found an increased risk in bowel polyps from eating red meat.[21] They examined the incidence and mortality for the following 17 years, finding that people involved in the screening had a 41% lower mortality.[22][23][24] The bowel cancer screening test BowelScope can prevent 35% of bowel cancers.[25][26]

Atkin went on to create a Special Interest Group (SIG) on Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiologists 1 (SIGGAR1), which analysed the effectiveness of virtual colonoscopy.[27][28] They found it was less invasive and more effective at finding precancerous polyps and bowel cancer.[29] She researched the optimum timing of surveillance strategies for people who were at high risk of bowel cancer.[29] Atkin established a patient-friendly process that would invite, screen and follow-up the whole population.[30] She found that patients at risk of developing bowel cancer benefitted significantly from a follow-up colonoscopy.[31][32][33]

She served as an expert advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidelines for Colonoscopic Surveillance.[4] She served on several advisory committees and boards.[13] She retired from Imperial College London in August 2018 and was made Emeritus Professor.[9] She died on 2 October 2018.[1][2]

Awards and honours

References

  1. ^ a b c d Warren, Penny (2018). "Wendy Atkin: epidemiologist who made an enormous contribution to bowel cancer prevention". BMJ: k4465. doi:10.1136/bmj.k4465. ISSN 0959-8138. S2CID 80809624.
  2. ^ a b Anon (2018). "Obituary: Professor Wendy Atkin". imperial.ac.uk.
  3. ^ a b "Atkin, Prof. Wendy Sheila, (born 5 April 1947), Professor of Gastrointestinal Epidemiology, Imperial College London, since 2004", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 2016-12-01, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u286505, ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4, retrieved 2021-07-12
  4. ^ a b c d e "Home - Emeritus Professor Wendy Atkin". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  5. ^ Atkin, Wendy Sheila (1991). Risk of subsequent colon and rectal cancer after removal of adenomas from the rectosigmoid. london.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University College London. OCLC 940329454. Copac 34557568.
  6. ^ Jarvis, Martin (2015-11-24). "Jane Wardle obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  7. ^ Atkin, Wendy. "UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening" (PDF). National Archives. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  8. ^ "Bowel cancer success predicted". 2003-03-31. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  9. ^ a b "Professor Wendy Atkin Retires - Surgery and Cancer Blog". Surgery and Cancer Blog. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  10. ^ "Bowel test 'slashes cancer deaths'". nhs.uk. 2010-04-28. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  11. ^ "Bowel screening 'revolution' could slash cancer rate". New Scientist. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  12. ^ Blom, Johannes (2010). "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. 15 (5): 155–6. doi:10.1136/ebm1104. ISSN 2515-446X. PMID 20688846. S2CID 206927829.
  13. ^ a b "Honours and Memberships - Emeritus Professor Wendy Atkin". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  14. ^ "Boost for bowel cancer spending". BBC News. 2010-10-03. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  15. ^ "Inclusion of flexible sigmoidoscopy in the UK Bowel Cancer Screening Programme". www.ucl.ac.uk. 2014-12-12. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  16. ^ "REF Case study search". impact.ref.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  17. ^ "Bowel test 'slashes cancer deaths'". nhs.uk. 2010-04-28. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  18. ^ Grice, Elizabeth (2010-12-06). "On the trail of a common killer". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  19. ^ a b c "Professor Wendy Atkin". acmedsci.ac.uk. Academy of Medical Sciences. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  20. ^ Atkin, Wendy S. (2006). "Impending or pending? The national bowel cancer screening programme". BMJ. 332 (7544): 742. doi:10.1136/bmj.38797.494757.47. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1420723. PMID 16554333.
  21. ^ "EPIC-Norfolk Collaborators: Researchers". www.srl.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  22. ^ Atkin, Wendy; Wooldrage, Kate; Parkin, D Maxwell; Kralj-Hans, Ines; MacRae, Eilidh; Shah, Urvi; Duffy, Stephen; Cross, Amanda J (2017). "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. PMC 6168937. PMID 28236467.
  23. ^ "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.
  24. ^ "One-off bowel scope cuts cancer risk for at least 17 years". www.nihr.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  25. ^ "New screening test cuts bowel cancer risk by a third, study finds". The Guardian. Press Association. 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  26. ^ Healthcare, Imperial College (2015-02-06), Bowel Cancer and the work of Professor Wendy Atkin at Imperial College London, retrieved 2018-10-06
  27. ^ Atkin, Wendy S (2011). "Study of colonoscopic surveillance intervals after removal of colorectal adenomas". doi:10.1186/ISRCTN02411483. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  28. ^ "CT scans are the best alternative to colonoscopy to investigate bowel cancer". Imperial News. Imperial News, Imperial College, London. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  29. ^ a b "Research - Emeritus Professor Wendy Atkin". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  30. ^ "Developing the bowel cancer screening programme – Imperial College London". The Russell Group. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  31. ^ "Follow-up colonoscopies associated with a significantly lower incidence of bowel cancer". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  32. ^ "Colonoscopy lowers rates of bowel cancer in some patients with intermediate risk polyps". Bowel Cancer UK. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  33. ^ "This one-off bowel cancer test could save thousands of lives". Good Housekeeping. 2017-02-24. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  34. ^ a b "Principal Investigator". www.csprg.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  35. ^ "Queen's birthday honours list 2013: OBE". The Guardian. 2013-06-14. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
  36. ^ "Bowel Cancer Screening: 23 Nov 2011: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 2018-10-06.