“Stand Up to Cancer”: Alexander J.R. Bishop, DPhil, to Lead One of Three New Trans-Atlantic Research Teams to Study Hard-to-Treat Childhood Cancers
Research funded by Stand Up To Cancer and Cancer Research UK aims to increase innovative and effective approaches to treating pediatric cancers
LOS ANGELES, CA – (Oct. 19, 2020) — While incredible progress has been made in advancing pediatric cancer research, critical unmet needs still exist, especially for more aggressive cancers such as neuroblastomas and Ewing sarcoma. The Stand Up To Cancer-Cancer Research UK Pediatric Cancer New Discoveries Challenge has awarded three new teams of scientists in both the UK and the US with up to $1 million over two years to improve therapies for cancers that impact children and young people and are particularly difficult to treat.
While tackling COVID-19 has become the top health priority around the world, a child is still diagnosed with cancer every two minutes globally. Around 1,900 cases of pediatric cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year, and more than 15,000 cases are diagnosed in the US. Efforts to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed the power of scientific collaboration on a global scale, which could greatly benefit research in other areas – such as pediatric cancer – in the long term.
“Despite the world’s focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains imperative to continue supporting the research efforts and infrastructure for childhood cancers in both the near and long term,” said Sung Poblete, PhD, RN, CEO of Stand Up To Cancer. “The forward momentum of each of these teams is very promising, as they focus both on children currently in treatment as well as those that are yet to be diagnosed.”
The Stand Up To Cancer-Cancer Research UK Pediatric Cancer New Discoveries Challenge supports teams focused on understanding the drivers of pediatric cancers and the usage of a novel or repurposed medicines for therapeutic purposes. The three trans-Atlantic teams will do the initial development over two years and then compete for an additional four years of funding to further advance their work.
“Progress in children and young people’s cancer remains stubbornly low for certain cancer types,” said Dr. Matt Kaiser, Head of Discovery Research at Cancer Research UK. “By funding these transatlantic collaborations, we hope to accelerate progress in our understanding of cancer in children and young people, which will ultimately lead to much needed new ways to treat these cancers in the clinic.”
Team 1: Led by Dr. Martin McCabe at the University of Manchester and Dr. Thomas Merchant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, this team will study precision radiotherapy, a type of treatment for pediatric brain cancers that currently can cause lifelong side effects in cognition and hormone production. The team aims to identify the regions of the brain involved in these processes that are sensitive to radiation in order to develop an atlas of brain regions to be avoided during precision radiotherapy in childhood.
Team 2: Led by Professor John Anderson at the University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Professor Louis Chesler at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, this team will tackle some of the challenges associated with utilizing immunotherapies for the treatment of childhood cancers. The team will study the immune system of children with two types of brain/nerve cancer: neuroblastoma or medulloblastoma. They plan to re-engineer the patient’s own T-cells into ‘CAR-T cells’ that can boost a child’s immune system to overcome tumor growth and other immunity barriers.
Team 3: Led by Dr. Alexander Bishop at UT Health San Antonio and Professor Kevin Hiom at the University of Dundee, Scotland, this team will investigate a unique biological hallmark of Ewing sarcoma, a type of cancer that affects bones and the surrounding tissue that is poorly understood and has limited treatment options. The biological hallmark they will investigate is called R-loops, which are present in higher numbers in Ewing sarcoma and are caused by genetic alteration. The team hopes to create a drug that will target this unusual gene mutation.
The international collaboration between Stand Up To Cancer and Cancer Research UK launched with a live Stand Up To Cancer telecast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom in 2012. Since that time, more than £62 million has been raised in the UK to date, funding 52 clinical trials and projects involving 11,000 cancer patients across the country. Currently, four teams are supported by the transatlantic collaborations between SU2C and Cancer Research UK.
About Stand Up To Cancer
Stand Up To Cancer® (SU2C) raises funds to accelerate the pace of research to get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now. SU2C, a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was established in 2008 by media and entertainment leaders who utilize these communities’ resources to engage the public in supporting a new, collaborative model of cancer research, to increase awareness about cancer prevention, and to highlight progress being made in the fight against the disease. As of June 2020, more than 1,600 scientists representing more than 180 institutions are involved in SU2C-funded research projects.
Under the direction of our Scientific Advisory Committee, led by Nobel laureate Phillip A. Sharp, PhD, SU2C operates rigorous competitive review processes to identify the best research proposals to recommend for funding, oversee grants administration, and ensure collaboration across research programs.
Current members of the SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA) include Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, Kathleen Lobb, Lisa Paulsen, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Pamela Oas Williams, and Ellen Ziffren. The late Laura Ziskin and the late Noreen Fraser are also co-founders. Sung Poblete, PhD, R.N., serves as SU2C’s CEO. For more information, visit StandUpToCancer.org.
About Cancer Research UK
• Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.
• Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
• Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years.
• Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK’s ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years.
• Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
• Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK’s vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
For further information about Cancer Research UK’s work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Stand Up To Cancer
Mirabai Vogt-James
310-739-5576
Mjames@su2c.org
Cancer Research UK
Harry Jenkins
+44 203 469 5513
Harry.jenkins@cancer.org.uk
Pressoffice@cancer.org.uk
Since 2004, UT Health San Antonio, Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute’s (Greehey CCRI) mission has been to advance scientific knowledge relevant to childhood cancer, contribute to understanding its causes, and accelerate the translation of knowledge into novel therapies. Greehey CCRI strives to have a national and global impact on childhood cancer by discovering, developing, and disseminating new scientific knowledge. Our mission consists of three key areas — research, clinical, and education.
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