About
Andrew Beggs is a Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery in the School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham.
His major research interests include colorectal cancer biology and he has published articles in The Lancet, Gut, Journal of Pathology and PLoS Genetics. He collaborated in writing the European consensus guidelines for the management of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.
Andrew has been awarded grant funding from Cancer Research UK, Mason Medical Research Foundation, Peel Medical Research Trust & St Georges Hospital Charity.
Qualifications
Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery
PhD Cancer Genetics, 2012
MRCS (England), 2006
MBBS with distinction Medicine & Surgery, 2003
BSc(Hons) Radiological Sciences (i), 2000
Biography
Andrew qualified from Guy’s, Kings & St. Thomas’ Hospitals School of Medicine, Kings College London in 2003 with distinction. His interest in academia started early, having completed a BSc in Radiological Sciences at Kings College London where he carried out early research into the use of standardised uptake values (SUV) in 18-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography (18FDG-PET) in quantifying malignant potential in tumours.
Andrew undertook his house jobs and worked as an A&E SHO at St. Thomas’ Hospital. He was an Anatomy Demonstrator at Guys Hospital, Kings College London, under supervision of Professor Harold Ellis & Professor Susan Standring (Editor of Grays Anatomy). He then undertook a Basic Surgical Training rotation at St Georges Hospital, London and Kingston Hospital, Surrey, being awarded the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2006.
Andrew started his doctoral research in 2007 when he was appointed a research registrar in Colorectal Surgery at Croydon University Hospital, undertaking research leading to the award of a PhD in the laboratory of Professor Ian Tomlinson at Cancer Research UK, latterly at the University of Oxford. Andrew was also supervised by Professor Shirley Hodgson (St Georges, University of London) and Mr Muti Abulafi (Croydon University Hospital). Subsequent to his research, he was appointed to the higher surgical training scheme in South-West London and Surrey in 2010 as a Specialty Registrar in General Surgery.
The main focus of the research was into genomic instability in colorectal cancer. As part of this research he carried out examination of crypt level heterogeneity in colorectal polyps, whole genome methylation of colorectal cancer & adenomas, double strand DNA break repair, pathogenesis of serrated adenomas and tumour heterogeneity.
Whilst working within hospitals in SW London Andrew developed separate research interests in pelvic floor dysfunction and bed side ultrasound, in collaboration with the Pelvic Floor research group at Croydon University Hospital and Mr Paul Thomas at Epsom & St Helier Hospital.
Andrew is currently a reviewer for The Lancet, British Medical Journal, The Journal of Neurological Sciences, British Journal of Surgery, Genes Chromosomes & Cancers, Gastroenterology and PLoS ONE. He also acts as a peer reviewer for Cancer Research UK.
Andrew is always interested in collaboration in any aspect of colorectal cancer biology, and in any surgically relevant tumours such as sarcoma or gastro-oesophageal cancer.
Research
Basic science:
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Epigenetics
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Biomarkers
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Colorectal cancer genetics
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Colorectal cancer biology
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Genome association wide studies
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Telomere biology & genome stability
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DNA repair
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Next generation sequencing
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Microarrays (SNP, aCGH & methylation)
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Bioinformatics
Clinical:
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Pelvic floor dysfunction
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Anal incontinence
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Bedside ultrasound
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Regression modelling & statistical analysis
Other activities
GMC Partner:
I work for the General Medical Council appraising specialist and foundation training in surgery as well as curriculum approvals for surgical specialties.
Publications
Journal articles:
Jones, A. M., A. D. Beggs, et al. (2012). "TERC polymorphisms are associated both with susceptibility to colorectal cancer and with longer telomeres." Gut 61(2): 248-254.
Beggs, A. D., R. D. Bhate, et al. (2011). "Straight to colonoscopy: the ideal patient pathway for the 2-week suspected cancer referrals?" Ann R Coll Surg Engl 93(2): 114-119.
Elenskaia, K., R. Thakar, et al. (2011). "The effect of pregnancy and childbirth on pelvic floor muscle function." Int Urogynecol J 22(11): 1421-1427.
Beggs, A. D., S. Irukulla, et al. (2010). "A pilot study of ultrasound guided Durasphere injection in the treatment of faecal incontinence." Colorectal Dis 12(9): 935-940.
Beggs, A. D., A. R. Latchford, et al. (2010). "Peutz-Jeghers syndrome: a systematic review and recommendations for management." Gut 59(7): 975-986.
Lessi, F., A. Beggs, et al. (2010). "Down-regulation of serum/glucocorticoid regulated kinase 1 in colorectal tumours is largely independent of promoter hypermethylation." PLoS One 5(11): e13840.
Lone, F., A. H. Sultan, et al. (2010). "Risk factors and management patterns for emergency obstetric hysterectomy over 2 decades." Int J Gynaecol Obstet 109(1): 12-15.
Beggs, A. D. and S. V. Hodgson (2009). "Genomics and breast cancer: the different levels of inherited susceptibility." Eur J Hum Genet 17(7): 855-856.
Book Chapters:
Beggs, A.D. (2008), “The Future Structure of Care”, In: Clark S. (ed) A guide to cancer genetics in clinical practice. TPM Publishing
Web sites:
Beggs AD. Explaining Evidence Guidelines and Protocols to Patients.; in Electronic Learning For Health
(http://www.e-lfh.org.uk, Department of Health, UK