Call for Research: Improvements of the Cancer Pathway for Childhood and Young Adult Cancers (UK)

The research programme is designed to progress the principal aims. First, they wish to develop improved treatments so that more patients are cured with less toxic side effects. Second, they wish to better understand how cancer develops so that one day they may be able to prevent it.

Current Research Priorities

• Development of more effective treatments
  • In spite of the impressive, improved prognosis for cancer in children and young people seen over the last 50 years, survival has recently plateaued. Moreover, many of those cured suffer significant side effects. They believe that more targeted, less toxic treatment options including immunotherapies and tailored treatments which target cancer-specific molecular changes are an important area for research investment.
• Early identification and mitigation of treatment related toxicity
  • They support clinical and laboratory research aimed at improving survival and quality-of-life.
  • Toxicity of therapy is an increasingly prominent cause of both short- and long-term morbidity and mortality as there are now more second and subsequent lines of therapy if initial treatment is unsuccessful. They support research seeking to improve understanding of the mechanisms of toxicity which may be used to design future treatment strategies that maintain efficacy yet reduce early and/or late toxicity as well as identifying genetic and other factors which might be used to mitigate this risk.
• Promotion and dissemination of research findings to achieve maximum research impact
  • The hope is to remove some of the barriers faced by researchers when attempting to share the efforts of their work. They support a new open access publication platform developed by AMRC and its partners called AMRC Open Research. This will help researchers, but also assist clinicians accessing such publications, in order to facilitate the optimal management of the patients they are caring for.
• Identification of improved diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers
  • Accurate diagnosis and disease monitoring are central to the development of more effective, less toxic stratified therapies. Strong support for this approach is seen in the application of cytogenetics and MRD in leukaemia’s and molecular classification of medulloblastoma, which were previously only research tools but are now firmly embedded as ‘standard-of-care’ in routine clinical practice. The development of similar approaches in other tumour types is an important area for future research.
• Understanding cellular and molecular oncogenesis
  • Basic cellular and molecular biology research holds the key to understanding the mechanisms through which cancer develops and by implication the development of new therapies. Over the next five years, Children with Cancer UK will continue to support such studies but will give priority to those deemed by the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) and Board of Trustees to have a clear translational benefit in the short term.

What can the funding be used for?

• The project grants are intended to provide funds for the employment of suitably qualified staff and the purchase of essential equipment and consumables for projects lasting up to 3 years that address the objectives. Please note that they will not contribute towards the cost of tenured posts, nor can they contribute towards institutional overheads. The maximum amount that can be applied for is up to £350,000 for applications from a single institution, or more for collaborations involving more than one institution, though most grants will be for less than this.

Eligibility Criteria

• Proposals must be submitted by a UK academic institution (university, hospital or research institute). They will consider funding international collaborations where researchers from a UK institution play a leading role. If a grant is awarded to such a collaboration, the UK institution must take overall responsibility for management of the project and must undertake to administer the funding.
• Please note that they will accept no more than two proposals from a single research group.

For more information, visit Children with Cancer UK.