Publications

@article{Gaston2025-fb,

title = {Challenges in the diagnosis of biliary stricture and  cholangiocarcinoma and perspectives on the future applications  of advanced technologies},

author = {Kevin Gaston and Abdelkhalick Mohammad and Suresh Vasan Venkatachalapathy and Ioan Notingher and George S D Gordon and Arvind Arora and Frankie J Rawson and Jane I Grove and Abhik Mukherjee and Dhanny Gomez and Padma-Sheela Jayaraman and Guruprasad P Aithal},

doi = {10.3390/cancers17142301},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-07-01},

urldate = {2025-07-01},

journal = {Cancers (Basel)},

volume = {17},

number = {14},

pages = {2301},

publisher = {MDPI AG},

abstract = {In the management of cholangiocarcinoma, effective biliary 

 drainage and accurate diagnosis are vital to allow further 

 treatment. Confirmation of tissue diagnosis and molecular 

 characterization is also required to guide future treatment 

 options including surgery and chemotherapy as well as the 

 possible use of personalized treatments that target specific 

 mutations present within individual tumours. Initial CT or MRI 

 scans may be followed by endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) or 

 endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to obtain 

 tissue samples. However, these methods often fall short due to 

 difficulty in accessing entire bile duct strictures. SpyGlass 

 cholangioscopy can improve diagnosis, yet may fail to provide 

 sufficient tissue for molecular characterization. Here we 

 present a perspective on the development of snake-like agile 

 robots with integrated optical imaging and Raman spectroscopy. 

 These robots could improve the mapping of the biliary tree and 

 the precision of biopsy collection and allow tissue analysis in 

 situ, as well as facilitating stenting to restore the flow of 

 bile. A multidisciplinary approach that brings together 

 clinicians, pathologists, and engineers is required to develop 

 these new robotic technologies and improve patient outcomes.},

keywords = {bile duct, Cholangiocarcinoma, cholestasis, liver cancer, robotics},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Jayaraman2021-gq,

title = {Targeting protein kinase CK2 in the treatment of 

 cholangiocarcinoma},

author = {Padma-Sheela Jayaraman and Kevin Gaston},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-10-01},

journal = {Explor. Target. Antitumor Ther.},

volume = {2},

number = {5},

pages = {434\textendash447},

publisher = {Open Exploration Publishing},

abstract = {Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a disease with a very poor prognosis 

 and limited treatment options. Although targeted therapies 

 directed towards specific mutations found in CCA are becoming 

 available and are showing great potential, many tumors do not 

 carry actionable mutations and, in those that do, the emergence 

 of drug resistance is a likely consequence of treatment. 

 Therapeutic targeting of enzymes and other proteins that show 

 elevated activity in CCA cells but which are not altered by 

 mutation is a potential strategy for the treatment of target 

 negative and drug-resistant disease. Protein kinase CK2 (CK2) is 

 a ubiquitously expressed kinase that has increased expression 

 and increased activity in a variety of cancer types including 

 CCA. Several potent CK2 inhibitors are in pre-clinical 

 development or under assessment in a variety of clinical trials 

 often in combination with drugs that induce DNA damage. This 

 review outlines the importance of CK2 in CCA and assesses the 

 progress that has been made in the evaluation of CK2 inhibition 

 as a treatment strategy in this disease. Targeting CK2 based on 

 the expression levels or activity of this protein and/or in 

 combination with drugs that induce DNA damage or inhibit cell 

 cycle progression, could be a viable option for tumors that lack 

 actionable mutations, or for tumors that develop resistance to 

 targeted treatments.},

keywords = {apoptosis, casein   kinase II, Cholangiocarcinoma, DNA damage response, dose-dependent synthetic lethality, methuosis, protein kinase CK2},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}