Our life-saving research (continued)
Progress against the objectives we set last year – 2010/11
Continue to enhance research programmes
in early diagnosis, screening and prevention. In April 2010 we reported a major research breakthrough in the diagnosis of bowel cancer. A16-year study that we helped to fund showed that having a one-off screening test, called flexible sigmoidoscopy (flexi sig), could cut the number of cases of bowel cancer by a third. The test could also reduce deaths from the disease by 43% among those attending screening. Flexi sig scans the bowel for growths called polyps and removes them. If left untreated, these growths can become cancerous.
In October 2010 the UK government announced plans to introduce flexi sig into England’s bowel screening programme. And in March 2011 the UK National Screening Committee gave the go-ahead for the test to be introduced into existing bowel cancer screening programmes. We’re pushing Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to follow England’s example.
We funded ten research projects as part of the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative (NAEDI). These include raising public awareness of the symptoms of cancer and the importance of reporting these promptly to GPs, how health services can respond promptly and appropriately when patients go to their GP with cancer symptoms, and studying the triggers and behaviours that influence whether people take part in screening.
Our research showed that removing displays of tobacco at tills helps change young people’s attitudes towards smoking. Following our campaigning, the UK government confirmed legislation will be introduced to prevent shops from displaying tobacco products.
We continue to co-fund the National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI), which has contributed £23 million to 55 research projects that aim to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases by influencing the lifestyle and health choices people make. We have committed £1.5 million over five years to fund the next phase of NPRI, which will develop and test ways to help people alter lifestyle behaviours, including quitting smoking or losing weight.
Promote clinical and translational research that
willmaximise cancer survival. We support more than 340 research projects focusing on ‘bench-to-bedside’ studies into new ways to detect and treat cancer. This includes around 200 UK clinical trials. The number of cancer patients taking part in clinical studies in the UK has quadrupled in the last decade.
Continue to build strategic partnershipswith industry,
and continue to invest in and foster national and international collaborations to deliver the best research. Partnerships and collaborations with industry are essential if we are to deliver better treatments to patients.
42,000 cancer patients join publicly-funded trials each year. Three-quarters
of those are taking part in a trial supported by Cancer Research UK.
In January 2010 Cancer Research Technology Ltd (CRT), our technology development and commercialisation arm, signed a three-year agreement with AstraZeneca to jointly discover drugs that work by targeting the metabolism of cancer cells. Scientists from CRT and AstraZeneca are now working on four drug discovery projects and the alliance continues to progress well.
Support for long-term clinical research is crucial. For example, it took ten years for a follow-up study led by one of our scientists to prove the long-term benefit of anastrozole, which is fast becoming the ‘gold standard’ drug for preventing the return of breast cancer. Another trial for the drug abiraterone – discovered and developed by our scientists – showed that it can significantly improve survival rates for men with advanced prostate cancer.
In our five-year strategy, we committed to boost research into radiotherapy. Since 2007 we have supported over 30 early-phase trials into radiotherapy treatments through our Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMCs). We have also supported five new larger trials aimed at improving radiotherapy.
Surgery continues to be one of the most important approaches to treating and managing cancer and is another focus of our five-year strategy. We aim to increase research into surgery and in September 2010 we launched a new scheme that funds cancer surgeons to develop novel research programmes during their surgical training.
CRT also signed an agreement with biotechnology company Cephalon in March 2010, to discover new drugs that work by disrupting a key molecule involved in cancer, called protein kinase C. Studies are currently progressing at the CRT Discovery Laboratories before Cephalon takes the project for further development.
An alliance with AstraZeneca and our network of ECMCs will see us working together to test new combinations of cancer drugs in early clinical trials. The first study will start in late 2011 and two further new treatment combinations have been agreed.
In partnership with biopharmaceutical company Immatics Biotechnologies, we launched a trial of a new vaccine for an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Reviewour funding mechanisms to ensure that
we are developing, funding and supporting the next generation of cancer researchers. We launched an online electronic grants management system, streamlining processes and making it easier for researchers to apply for funding and manage their grants.
We have a number of fellowship funding schemes which support talented researchers at the start of and during their careers. These schemes help us to develop future leaders in cancer research, and this year we saw a significant rise in applications across all of our fellowships.
06 / Annual Report and Accounts / Our life-saving research
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