Childhood cancer - help every child have a future without it
Why do childhood and teenage cancers require specialist research?
In the UK more than 1,500 children are diagnosed with cancer each year. While we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of children surviving their disease, one in four children still die from their cancer.
The principle cause of death between infancy and adulthood is childhood cancers, which include neuroblastoma (cancer of the nerve cells), medulloblastoma (brain tumour) and leukaemia (cancer of the white blood cells).
Cancer in children and teenagers has a different biological basis from adult cancers and, though treatment is available, there is no specifically targeted therapy for treatment of childhood malignancy. Current treatment, either chemotherapy or radiotherapy, works by damaging DNA: killing those cells that are dividing rapidly. Therefore, the treatments, which are designed for adults, kill not only cancer cells but healthy cells too.
These treatments have overall improved survival for children with cancer but they are associated with severe side-effects, often leaving children to battle against infertility, growth abnormalities, cosmetic deformity and, sometimes, second cancers.
Our vision
At the ICR we are aiming to improve survival for childhood cancers by a further 25%. Crucial to achieving this aim is the ICR’s Section of Paediatric Oncology mission to tackle childhood cancers with particularly poor survival rates, the section’s world leading research into the genetic causes of childhood cancers as well as its focus on the development of new drugs.
The ICR hosts the only fully integrated academic drug discovery unit for childhood cancers in the world and the Section is headed by renowned paediatric oncologist Professor Andy Pearson. Together with The Royal Marsden Hospital, our team of more than 60 researchers and clinicians is dedicated to taking its laboratory research forward into clinical practice to improve patient care.
Our vision over the next decade is to develop therapeutic drugs specifically for childhood cancers; ones that are designed to target the biology of cancers in young patients. Targeted therapies will not only be more effective but will avoid some of the severe side-effects associated with current treatment in children.
How you can help
We actively raise funds to support the ICR's research into childhood cancers. Your support can help us realise our goal to improve survival and reduce the suffering that many young cancer patients currently face. Together we can transform the outlook for children around the world with this terrible disease.
