Cambridge scientists will play a key role in groundbreaking research into the final stages of cancer.
Researchers from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre will be collaborating with scientists from across the UK, following the announcement today of the charity’s Centres’ Network Accelerator Awards.
Designed to inspire new approaches to beating cancer, the awards will invest around £4 million, over five years, in a UK-wide initiative to expand the first national post-mortem cancer study. The PEACE (Posthumous tissue donation in CancEr) study launched last year at the Cancer Research UK UCL Centre and is now going national.
Watch an interview by Dr James Brenton, Consultant Oncologist at Addenbrooke's and co-lead of the Ovarian Cancer Programme, on Cambridge TV news 16 May.
Doctors will invite terminally ill patients – most of whom are taking part in clinical trials – to donate samples of their cancer after their death. They will be asked to discuss the issue with their families, before deciding to be part of this pioneering research.
It aims to understand how cancer changes and evolves in advanced stages of the disease to help develop better treatments for cancer that has spread.
The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre brings together researchers from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer Research UK who are involved in cancer related clinical trials and research.
The centre will join forces with scientists from Leicester, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester and London to roll out the study collecting blood and tissue samples from patients who have died from cancer.
This work will be vital for understanding the evolution and final stages of the disease and the genetics of certain tumours that are hard for doctors to take samples from when patients are alive, such as brain tumours.
Scientists will be able to study how tumours develop and spread in advanced cancer, how and why tumours become resistant to treatment and how the body reacts to the disease during the final stages, as well as looking at potential ways to boost the immune system to fight cancer.
Professor Richard Gilbertson, Director of the Cambridge Cancer Centre, said: “We’re delighted to be a part of this grant from Cancer Research UK, which will help to further our understanding of cancer and give patients the choice to contribute to research after their death.
“The vital investment in this study will help us complete the whole cancer picture, from diagnosis to end of life, which we need in order to understand how cancer changes and evolves over time. It’s these changes which make the cancer difficult to treat because it can stop responding to treatment.
“We are so incredibly thankful to the patients who have agreed to take part. With their help we can do research that will help more people survive this devastating disease.”
Cancer Research UK’s Centres’ Network Accelerator Awards will invest a total of around £16 million in four ground-breaking projects – including the post-mortem cancer study- which are helping to speed up advances in research into hard to treat cancers.
Dr Iain Foulkes, executive director for research funding at Cancer Research UK, said: “Effective partnerships are crucial for delivering the greatest science and boosting advancements in fighting cancer.
“We’re excited to be investing in collaborative and innovative research in Cambridge and across the UK. It’s by working together and uniting expertise that we will accelerate cutting-edge research and save more lives.”
The post-mortem cancer study is not yet open for patients across the UK.
