Almost 4,000 children and young people are diagnosed with cancer every year in the UK. That’s ten every day.
Louis was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at just 19 months old. The cancer affected Louis’ ability to fight infection. It swept through his body with horrifying speed and Louis could have died within months.
After three gruelling years of treatment, Louis’ mum heard the words she had longed for – “Louis is in remission”. But many other children with cancer are not so lucky. One in five children die as they do not receive effective treatment.
You could help fund vital new research into childhood cancer and help to save the life of a child like Louis.
A gift from you could help fund an exciting new approach to fighting childhood cancer called Precision Medicine. This type of treatment uses genetics to help doctors tailor treatment to the individual tumours found in children.
By targeting our approach like this we can greatly reduce the damage that cancer drugs do to young bodies and help many more children like Louis survive cancer.
We need your support today to help reach our goal of giving all children with cancer in the UK access to Precision Medicine by 2020.
Why is Precision Medicine so important for children with cancer?
The past 20 years have seen incredible discoveries in science, particularly in genetics. But many of these discoveries have not yet translated to better cancer treatment. Precision Medicine will address this imbalance and help to save the lives of many more children with cancer.
Precision Medicine works by mapping the genetic sequence of individual cancer tumours. This allows doctors to treat cancer based on the genetic make-up of individual cancer tumours rather than where in the body cancer is found. This targeting could greatly improve childhood cancer survival rates. It also means toxic treatments like chemotherapy do less damage to the healthy cells that surround cancer tumours. This means treatment is far less damaging to children and young adults who are still growing.
Precision Medicine is already saving lives in America and Europe. A gift today will help bring Precision Medicine to the United Kingdom and save the lives of even more children with cancer.
Your gift will help us drive forward Precision Medicine in a project with four parts:
- A tissue referral system so doctors can submit childhood tumour samples for quick and urgent testing
- A specialist genetics hub to prioritise the gene sequencing of childhood tumours and determine effective treatment more quickly
- A national childhood cancer database that links with the patient registry and paves the way for new treatments in the future
- A multidisciplinary advisory team that brings together scientists and doctors to match children with cancer to the most effective treatments.
Thanks to people like you, and the lifesaving research you help fund, 92% of children with leukaemia now survive. Your gift today will help even more children to win their fight against cancer.
Cancer doesn't care about children, but we do
About acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)
ALL is the only form of leukaemia, and one of the few forms of cancer, that is more common in children than in adults.
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Precision Medicine and other cancer treatments
Precision Medicine is an approach to cancer treatment which is tailored to the patient’s specific type of cancer.
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Patient story: Louis
Louis was just 19 months old when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
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