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Research successes

As support for our work has grown, and we have raised more life-saving funds, we have invested in a range of carefully selected research projects, both in the UK and overseas.

Research funded by CHILDREN with CANCER (formerly CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA) has contributed to the rising survival rate for children with leukaemia. It is also contributing to the advancing knowledge about the underlying causes of leukaemia, the most common childhood cancer in Britain, and other childhood cancers.

Research is slow and painstaking. It is characterised not by a series of eureka moments - but by incremental advances which help us to gradually build a more complete picture of these devastating diseases.

The projects described below outline the impact of our work.

Using the immune system to fight leukaemia – Dr Malcolm Taylor

Isabelle Gore 29 March 2011
The role of HLA genes in protection from childhood leukaemia

Amount of grant: £129,063

Completion date: July 2010

Dr Malcolm Taylor, University of Manchester

The majority of children diagnosed with leukaemia can now be successfully treated. Cure often comes at great cost though as the powerful treatments used to save children’s lives can cause lasting damage to their health and development.

The ultimate goal is to prevent the disease altogether.

One possible approach to prevention builds on growing evidence of the role of the immune syste... Read More
Categories Research successes

Improving treatments for children with leukaemia – Dr Nicholas Goulden

Isabelle Gore 29 March 2011
UK studies of minimal residual disease-based stratification and treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)

Amount of grant: £3,243,897

Completion date: March 2010

Dr Nicholas Goulden, Great Ormond Street Hospital

Back in the 1960s, when effective leukaemia treatments were first emerging, some children could be cured with relatively gentle treatment.

As treatment has advanced, more powerful drugs are used.

The impact of this has been to drive up the survival rate, but it is estimated that half of the children cured today ... Read More
Categories Research successes
Related Topics Dr Nicholas Goulden, gosh, ALL

Understanding the genetic characteristics of leukaemia – Dr Joseph Wiemels

Yee Hung Lim 01 October 2008
Etiology of T(1;19) E2A-PBX1+ Leukemia: An Integrative Research Project

Amount of  grant: £148,594

Completion date: October 2008

Dr Joseph Wiemels, University of California

Childhood leukaemia is characterised by genetic mutations called translocations, where genes break and fuse with other broken genes – creating a fusion gene. Different translocations are associated with different forms of the disease.

In the past, most research into the causes of childhood leukaemia has treated it as a single disease. However the different forms of the ... Read More
Categories Research successes
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