Research Project and Dissertation
RESEARCH PROJECT AND Dissertation
The dissertation is a 10,000 word written thesis based on an extended research project which lasts throughout Trinity Term (your third term of study) and the Long Vacation. This is a substantial piece of work and accounts for 40% of the total marks awarded for the MSc degree.
The purpose of the dissertation is to provide students with an opportunity to undertake a focused research project in an area that is of particular interest to them. It ensures that you have a good understanding of research practice and study design. The dissertation content is designed to assess your academic ability, critical thinking, originality and understanding of the pragmatics of research. Dissertations are usually based on applied laboratory research, computational work or projects linked to clinical oncology or radiology studies. However, other formats, such as a systematic literature review, can be used where appropriate.
For this project you will typically be embedded either in one of the research laboratories within the Department of Oncology or with a clinician or physicist based in the adjacent cancer hospital. A list of dissertation projects and potential supervisors will be provided in Michaelmas term (October). You will need to discuss with potential supervisors and decide on a project by January. There is no requirement to identify a project or supervisor before you apply to this course.
After submission of the thesis, you will also be required to present a scientific poster based on your work at the Master's Dissertation Showcase in September. This is a compulsory part of the course and counts towards your dissertation grade.
Dissertation timeline:
| October to December | Project applications open |
| January | Projects allocated |
| March to August | Undertake research and write up findings |
| August | Submit dissertation |
| September | Master's Dissertation Showcase |
Example projects
These are example project titles to give an idea of the sort of projects that are available with the Department of Oncology or other collaborating groups within the University or beyond. There are no guarantees these or similar projects will be available in future academic years.
- An investigation into the role of iron in radiosensitisation and the FLASH effect on tumour versus normal tissue - lab-based
- C5aR1 Inhibition in Brain Tumor TME in response to Radiotherapy - lab-based
- High-LET vs low-LET radiation-induced damage and combination treatment with DNA damage repair inhibitors in head and neck and brain cancer cells - lab-based/computational
- Modelling grade 2 or above pneumonitis risk with radical radiotherapy for lung cancer using physiological and clinical data - clinically-oriented
NB: Publication from a Dissertation Project is not guaranteed, and is not required for achieving the highest marks in the assessment of the Dissertation.
- Suwa, T., Chai, I. et al. UPR-induced intracellular C5aR1 promotes adaptation to the hypoxic tumour microenvironment by regulating tumour cell fate. bioRxiv preprint (2024)
- Bradbury, R., Vallis, K. A., and Papiez, B. W. Paired Diffusion: Generation of related, synthetic PET-CT-Segmentation scans using Linked Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models. To be published in IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2024 (2024).
- Holt, F., Ivanova, A. et al. Estimated Doses to the Heart, Lungs and Oesophagus and Risks From Typical UK Radiotherapy for Early Breast Cancer During 2015–2023. Clinical Oncology 36(9), e322-e332 (2024).
- Winner of the 2023 UK Breast Cancer Group Prize (joint first author)
- Worth, K. R. et al. How the histological structure of some lung cancers shaped almost 70 years of radiobiology. Br J Cancer 128(3):407-412 (2023).
- Bourigault, P., Skwarski, M., Macpherson, R.E. et al. Timing of hypoxia PET/CT imaging after 18F-fluoromisonidazole injection in non-small cell lung cancer patients. Sci Rep 12, 21746 (2022).
- Bolland, H., Ramlee, S. et al. Links between the unfolded protein response and the DNA damage response in hypoxia: a systematic review. Biochem Soc Trans. 49(3):1251-1263 (2021).
- Bourigault, P., Skwarski, M., Macpherson, R.E. et al. Investigation of atovaquone-induced spatial changes in tumour hypoxia assessed by hypoxia PET/CT in non-small cell lung cancer patients. EJNMMI Res 11, 130 (2021).