On completion of his training, Dr Barbour worked at the Bristol Royal Infirmary as an Upper Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Surgery Fellow and then as a Surgical Oncology Fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, New York.
Professor Andrew Barbour has interests in the treatment of oesophageal, gastric, and pancreatic diseases, as well as melanoma and soft tissue tumours. He has expertise in minimally invasive treatments these conditions, including thoracoscopic/laparoscopic oesophagectomy, laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery (fundoplication), laparoscopic gastrectomy, and laparoscopic pancreatectomy.
Professor Andrew Barbour is a Surgical Oncologist at The University of Queensland with a research interest in the treatment of cancer. His academic interests have encompassed the areas of 1) clinical research, including randomised controlled clinical trials, 2) laboratory based research, including molecular biology pertinent to upper gastrointestinal disease, pancreatic cancer and melanoma, 3) translational research integrating the laboratory and clinical domains.
As a clinical researcher, Prof Barbour has been active in the conduct of clinical trials at Phase I, II and III levels. He is the Principal Investigator for investigator initiated multicentre phase II trials in oesophageal (DOCTOR trial) and pancreatic cancer (GAP Trial), funded by the NHandMRC and sponsored by the Australasian Gastrointestinal Trials Group. Both of these national trials include biological sub-studies with tumour tissue and blood banking and subsequent molecular analyses aimed at answering specific questions, including the identification of biomarkers of response to therapy. These studies are aimed at developing personalised, precision therapy for cancer. The DOCTOR trial was the first trial to use PET scans to “tailor” or “personalise” therapy for patients with oesophageal cancer. The GAP trial has shown that pre-operative chemotherapy is a safe strategy for patients with pancreatic cancer.
Prof Barbour is a translational researcher at the School of Medicine, The University of Queensland. He is the head of Surgical Oncology Lab at the School of Medicine. His research has focused on using genomic, epigenomic, mRNA expression and next generation sequencing data to classify oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC), pancreatic cancer and melanoma and to identify biomarkers of outcome. His lab team was the first to identify genomic catastrophes as potential drivers for oesophageal adenocarcinoma. In addition, his lab is seeking to identify genetic markers in melanoma that will identify patients at high risk for recurrence following surgery and to identify patients who will benefit from the current exciting advances in treatment for advanced melanoma. He is also a member of the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative (APGI) that has published several key studies that have improved our understanding of pancreatic cancer.