Through our new state-our-the-art Centre, we want to speed up advances in treatment for children with cancer. Our Centre aims to develop collaborative research projects that will grow and further strengthen links between scientists and clinicians, between the ICR and The Royal Marsden’s Oak Paediatric and Adolescent Drug Development Unit, and with other clinical and research centres.  

We have identified a particular need to train more academic clinicians in paediatric oncology to be able to correctly interpret complex research data and integrate findings into their clinical practice. We see significant potential in being able to cooperate more widely in the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of samples and data from patients. If we can share expertise in interpreting large datasets, it should enable us to identify and drug the key biological changes that cause paediatric cancers. 

We ultimately aim to identify and target the molecular changes that cause childhood cancer development. We aim to deliver first-in-child cancer drugs together with biomarkers capable of guiding their use in patients into innovative clinical trials. All of the resources we develop and make available through our Centre will be focused on this overriding priority - to develop innovative treatments for children with cancer and extend patient survival.