Paediatric Cancer

Paediatric Cancer Programme

The most common childhood cancers are cancers of the blood (leukaemias and lymphomas), brain, and central nervous system, accounting for over two thirds of the cancers diagnosed in children. Between 2014–2016, around 1,800 children were diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK. An additional 2,600 young people aged betweeen 15 and 24 are also diagnosed each year. Much research is directed at designing less toxic therapies, reducing therapeutic burden, and developing diagnostic tests to enhance patient stratification. This research is made possible in Cambridge by strong links between research labs and the clinic as well as contributions to international clinical trials.

Advancing research into children’s cancer and leukaemia across Cambridge
Programme network
Cambridge Childrens

The Programme has many members involved in the development of the new Children's Hospital, which will be based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus alongside Addenbrooke's Hospital.

A key focus of the new hospital will be cancer services for children and young people alongside world leading research.

Uganda Cambridge Cancer Initiative

The Programme is part of an exciting new collaboration with the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala, Uganda, alongside Cambridge Africa and Cambridge Global Health Partnerships.
Dr Suzanne Turner and her group have exchanged visits with research groups at UCI and are working with UCI to improve research and treatment for childhood lymphomas.

CRUK for Children and Young People

Find out more about CRUK's new strategy to support children’s and young people’s cancer research and tackle the challenges preventing progress.

See CRUK's children's cancers in numbers for graphics and statistics showing the breadth of cancer types in this age group.

Cancer Research UK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence

The Cancer Research UK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence (CRUK-CBTCE) brings together teams at the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) to revolutionise the approach to research and treatment of paediatric brain tumours, drawing on the host institutions' strengths in therapeutic discovery.

THE MISSION

To forge an innovative four-stage pipeline that generates curative treatments for children with brain tumours.

THE VISION

To transform the way, the world develops treatments for children with brain tumours. The research strategy for the CRUK-CBTCE is centred on their biology, drug discovery and development pipeline, which will leverage the expertise of the brightest minds in the paediatric brain tumour field. For more information on the CRUK-CBTCE, please visit their website.

ALKATRAS

ALK is increasingly recognised as a prevalent oncogene in a number of human malignancies, including anaplastic large cell lymphomas.
The European Training Network ALKATRAS (ALK as A target of TRAnslational Science) is supporting a cohort of 15 early stage researchers to become the next generation of cancer research specialists, several of whom are working in Suzanne Turner’s group in Cambridge.

The Oncology Guide

Are you a patient or family member who wants to know more about childhood cancers? The Oncology Guide provides really easy to understand information about different types of cancer, treatments and procedures.
Our Programme Lead Prof Suzanne Turner features on the pages about lymphoma.

Programme Contacts

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Department of Paediatrics
Programme Lead
University of Cambridge
Department of Pathology
Programme Lead
University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Department of Haematology, Department of Paediatrics
Training Lead
University of Cambridge
Department of Oncology
Programme Manager