Hopes of a future cure for brain cancer were given a huge boost after a pioneering UK centre received a £2.5million windfall to speed up clinical trials in children. The Brain Tumour Research charity provided the cash injection in a bid to unlock successful treatments for gliomas – the deadliest of all childhood cancers.
Experts led by Professor Chris Jones at The Institute of Cancer Research will now try to end a disease that blights countless lives, but receives next to no money.
The funding comes less than a week after the Daily Express was praised by MPs for raising a “missing millions” scandal – where families are forced to find tens of thousands of pounds to send children abroad for unproven therapies.
Dr Karen Noble, of Brain Tumour Research, said: “The aim is this work will lead to trials within the next five years, so we can give real hope to families in the future.
“The current situation means that people already facing the most distressing circumstances often have no option but to search for and fund trials abroad with all the expense, upheaval and uncertainty that brings.
“We are grateful to our loyal supporters who have made this milestone possible. But we need the Government to step up and not rely so much on investment from charities.”
Meanwhile, the future for brain tumour sufferers remains bleak. Some £40million for research was promised but just £15million spent since the late Labour MP Tessa Jowell died of the disease in 2018. In that time more than 25,000 people have died.
A devastating report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Brain Tumours said the current research funding system needed to be joined up from basic science through to clinical trials.
It said funding for childhood brain cancer research, where survival rates for the most aggressive tumours have not changed for
decades, should be untouchable.
Campaigners hope Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will announce more money to tackle the spiralling diagnosis and treatment crisis in tomorrow’s Budget.
Prof Jones will spearhead a team at the newly-created Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence in Sutton, Surrey, set up to research childhood brain tumours.
He said: “Our lab is working day in, day out to unravel the underlying biology of these dreadful tumours and hopefully uncover new ways to attack them. This invaluable support will help fuel new discoveries and pave the way to smarter, kinder treatments for children.”
Historically, just one per cent of the national cancer research spend has been allocated to brain cancer.
Options for children deemed high-risk are so limited that for some types of high-grade glioma, less than five per cent of patients survive more than two years. The average survival for the vast majority is nine to 18 months.
Source: | This article first appeared on Express.co.uk
