Clatterbridge Cancer Charity has granted £5m over five years to advance research at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. The money will support early phase clinical trials, groundbreaking new treatments and boost access to the latest in cancer care for the people who need it most.
Each year, around 7,000 people die from cancer in the region and this number is growing, with ingrained inequality and an ageing population among the factors that contribute to this.
“This funding is a game changer for cancer research at Clatterbridge, giving us the ability to take our groundbreaking studies to the next level and giving patients in Cheshire and Merseyside unparalleled access to new, lifesaving treatments closer to their homes. We want the name Clatterbridge to be synonymous with clinical research and this incredible pledge can ensure this. Thank you to everybody who is giving support to our charity.”
Professor Christian Ottensmeier, Director of Clinical Research at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.
Around 30% of women with early breast cancer will develop secondary breast cancer, with the disease spreading to other areas of the body including the bones, lungs, liver or brain – it can be treated, but at present cannot be cured.
There is an estimated 57,000 people in England alone being treated for secondary breast cancer and secondary cancers involving the brain are becoming more common – treating disease that has spread to the brain can be particularly challenging with patients only aware that they have the disease when they develop symptoms such as seizures, headaches or weakness in the limbs.
Professor Palmieri and his team will utilise £150,000 of your donations to undertake focused research to look for brain secondaries before they create symptoms. The team will also investigate if the earliest signs of the disease can be detected within the spinal fluid before there are symptoms and how best to treat the disease, aiming to reduce the impact of this devastating diagnosis on patients and their families.
The Charity has awarded a research grant of £50,000 to Dr Seamus Coyle as he seeks to improve the service (locally and nationally) given to those who die from cancer.
Palliative care research is a chronically underfunded area but changes and improvements to the process can have a hugely positive impact for patients and their loved ones. At Clatterbridge we are fortunate to have a dedicated and nationally-leading team in this area who have won many awards for the progress they have made in how we look after patients at the end of their lives.
This research grant will allow Dr Coyle to continue his work into better understanding the stages of a patient’s declining health – developing a simple urine test which could tell when a patient is in their last days or weeks of life. This is technology which could have a huge impact not only on cancer patients but on anyone, allowing medical staff to make much better informed decisions about how and where they treat patients.
With thanks to our friends the Medicash Foundation, the Charity is now supporting the delivery of first-in-human trials of newly developed drugs right here at Clatterbridge.
This generous four year pledge from Medicash is helping to fund a nursing post at Clatterbridge in the Experimental Cancer Medicines Team that will be able to assume roles and deliver care which would normally require a consultant, allowing for more capacity and thus for more patients at Clatterbridge to have the opportunity to access these new medicines via a clinical trial.
Thanks to these experimental drug trials, Clatterbridge patients are sometimes the first in the country or even the whole world to benefit from these treatments.
“Working in clinical trials is just so exciting, knowing that we are giving patients an opportunity to access a treatment which could prolong or improve their life is just a brilliant privilege.
We are so grateful to Medicash for funding this role and helping us to deliver the best care we can for the people of Merseyside and Cheshire.”
Lee, Research Nurse
Survival rates in many forms of cancer have increased dramatically in the last 50 years, but that is not the case in pancreatic cancer where only marginal improvements have been made. Research into this disease is now more vital than ever and we are very pleased to be supporting one such project.
With support from our charity, Clatterbridge Consultant Prof Dan Palmer and his collaborator Prof Ainhoa Mielgo at the University of Liverpool are now running a scientific trial with 40 Clatterbridge patients to see if they can better understand how the initial treatments given to pancreatic cancer patients may be attacking the initial tumour but also helping the cancer to spread to other organs, often the liver.
Better understanding the biology of this process will help scientists like Dan and Ainhoa to develop the current treatments and help to slow the progress of this often deadly disease.
The Clatterbridge Fairy was specially created by our Charity Patron, internationally acclaimed sculptor, Emma Rodgers.
We asked Emma to share why she's supporting our Fairy Appeal:
"I have been a Patron of Clatterbridge Cancer Charity for 14 years now, as my mum is cared for there. They are incredible with her and getting the 'all clear' was a wonderful moment. They've done more for me than I can ever do for them, so creating the Fairy seems a small thing, really.
And this year I will be dedicating my Fairy to Professor Myint and the Team at Clatterbridge love from Emma, Milly, Annie and family."
