The search for new cancer treatments in Wales is to receive a major funding investment providing future hope for people diagnosed with the disease.
Cardiff’s Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) will receive up to £2,184,783 over the next five years to help doctors and scientists find the cancer treatments of the future for both adults and children.
The funding has been made possible by a partnership between Cancer Research UK, Health and Care Research Wales and the Little Princess Trust specifically for children’s cancers.
Cardiff is part of a network of 17 ECMCs across the UK, funded by Cancer Research UK, which deliver clinical trials of promising new treatments. Since 2007, when the network was first established, around 30,000 patients have taken part in 2,100 trials.
The funding will allow new, experimental treatments – including immunotherapies – for a wide variety of cancers to be developed, as well as improve existing treatments.
ECMCs work in conjunction with local NHS facilities to provide access to cutting-edge cancer treatments. Testing these treatments helps to establish new ways of detecting and monitoring the disease and to evaluate how it responds to the treatment.
Cardiff ECMC co-leads, Professor Oliver Ottmann said:
“We are delighted Cardiff has secured this funding, helping us to expand our patient-centred research and delivery of innovative therapies.
“Clinical trials are crucial to new and improved treatments becoming adopted as standard treatments by the NHS. Our unique collaborative approach combines trial expertise in blood cancers and solid tumours with laboratory-based research and is supported by a range of healthcare professionals and patient representatives.
“Thousands of patients have already been provided with access to life-saving drugs and therapies through the Cardiff ECMC. We look forward to delivering new treatment opportunities to patients in Wales and beyond.”
One in two people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer within our lifetimes so finding new effective treatments is vital. *
Cancer Research UK has been integral in aiding the discovery of many new cancer treatments such as the drug tamoxifen, for which Cancer Research UK funded phase four clinical trials to validate it as an effective treatment for breast cancer.
Tamoxifen is now a mainstay treatment for people with oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer and appears on the World Health Organisation’s list of essential drugs for the disease.
As a result of tamoxifen, nearly two thirds of people diagnosed with breast cancer this decade are predicted to survive their disease for 20 years or more.
Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, Dr Iain Foulkes, said:
“We are proud to be supporting an expansion of our successful ECMC network, bringing together vast medical and scientific expertise to translate the latest scientific discoveries from the lab into the clinic.
“The ECMC network is delivering the cancer treatments of the future, bringing new hope to people affected by cancer. The trials taking place today will give the next generation the best possible chance of beating cancer.
“The adult and paediatric ECMC networks will offer clinical trials for many different types of cancer. Researchers will be working to find new treatments and tackle the unique challenges presented by cancers in children and young people. Working with our partners, this new funding will bring hope for more effective, personalised therapies for everyone affected by cancer.”
Chief Executive of the Little Princess Trust, Phil Brace, said:
“Cancer remains the leading cause of death amongst children and young people, and we must change that.
“Since 2016, The Little Princess Trust has been funding research with the aim to offer more targeted and less toxic treatments for children and young people with cancer. We’ve made some good progress, but we want to do so much more.
“We will achieve so much more for children and young people by working together.”
Professor Kieran Walshe, Director of Health and Care Research Wales, said:
“The ECMC Network is a vital strategic investment in the UK’s cancer research community, bringing together top scientists and clinicians to tackle some of the biggest scientific challenges in cancer.
“We are proud to support the development of new, cutting-edge cancer treatments through this exciting and innovative partnership approach.
“Research has long been shown to be pivotal in the fight against this disease, providing NHS clinicians with the tools needed to stay one step ahead of its evolution, as well as enabling the development of specialist therapies and effective aftercare for those affected by it.”
