Cambridge children’s cancer scientists to share £3M boost

Cambridge researchers are set to receive a major cash injection from Cancer Research UK to help develop the next generation of treatments for children with brain tumours.
Experts from the city’s Cancer Research UK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence are set to share in around £3.2m to continue their work to find and test better and less toxic ways to treat the disease.
While children’s cancer survival has more than doubled in the last 50 years, there has been little progress for youngsters with brain tumours.
Brain tumours are the leading cause of cancer death in children and those that do survive often face life-changing side effects, such as growth problems or reduced IQ, as a result of their treatment.
To help accelerate progress, Cancer Research UK launched the Centre of Excellence in 2018. It is a collaboration between the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre, the University of Cambridge and The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
And in just five years, these trailblazing scientists have been so successful that new treatment approaches for three of the most common types of children’s brain tumours are currently in development.
Plans for the new funding include using artificial intelligence and machine learning to create the world’s first entirely digital models of the hardest to treat children’s brain tumours.
The models will be used to help identify new treatment targets, develop potential new drugs and test them via virtual clinical trials within computer models of cancer – allowing researchers to weed out treatments with little benefit before they reach patients.
The centre is also looking to enhance UK capacity in the field through its brain tumour PhD training programme to help create a future generation of specialist researchers.
Co-Director of the Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, Professor Richard Gilbertson, said: “Too many young lives are still lost to brain tumours. And sadly, those diagnosed with aggressive forms of the disease are unlikely to live more than a year. Statistics like this are a huge driving force behind our work.
“Cancer is different in children and young people than in adults, so it needs different and dedicated research. That’s why the Centre of Excellence’s work is so vital. We aim to help revolutionise understanding of what makes these cancers tick and have set out, from the start, to design new drugs specifically to treat children’s disease.
“The last six years have shown our approach is working. For example, we now know there’s potentially a kinder way of treating medulloblastoma with an immunotherapy that’s never been tested before. This could help spare children from the devastating consequences of radiotherapy which can damage a young person’s brain and mean they struggle with education and finding a job later in life.
“The progress we’ve made in such a short space of time has been remarkable. Now, with our latest multi-million pound boost, we’re looking forward to taking our work to the next level and bringing hope to more children and families affected by brain tumours.”
Underlining the urgent need for greater investment, each year in the UK around 420 children are diagnosed with brain or central nervous system tumours. They’re the second most common type of children’s cancer in the UK.
Professor Paul Workman, Harrap Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Co-Director of the Cancer Research UK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, added: “While we’ve seen positive trends in survival for many forms of adult cancer, children with brain tumours continue to have distressingly few effective treatment options – and when they work, kids can be left with lifelong side effects from the therapies that saved their lives.
“We’re determined, through this strong collaboration with colleagues at Cambridge, and worldwide, to enable the discovery of more targeted and kinder drug treatments to save and improve the lives of many more children. We’re extremely grateful to the supporters of Cancer Research UK, who have enabled us to continue the vital research we’re doing at our joint centre.”
The funding announcement comes during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and the charity is paying tribute to the public for the vital role they play in driving new discoveries and breakthroughs through backing campaigns like this.
Cancer Research UK’s children’s and young people’s research lead, Dr Laura Danielson, said: “New treatments for children’s brain tumours can’t come soon enough, so we’re delighted to be sharing this positive news during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
“People in Cambridge have every right to feel proud of the world-class research taking place on their doorstep, that they’ve helped make possible by their generosity and commitment to the cause.
“By picking up a gold ribbon badge – the awareness symbol for children’s and young people’s cancers – from our shops, people across the city can support more research like this and help ensure more youngsters can live, longer better lives free from the fear of cancer.”
For the last six years, the Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence has been supported by TK Maxx. Since 2004, the retailer’s customers and associates have raised over £45m to help improve children’s cancer survival and reduce side effects from treatments.
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