Sarcoma UK is proud to announce funding for ten innovative research projects aiming to further understanding of sarcoma, improve potential for better and more personalised treatments, and improve quality of life for those with sarcoma.
Key themes for the new projects include investigating new treatments harnessing the immune system to fight cancer and discovering who will benefit from which treatment most. We’ll be learning more about the interactions between cancer cells and healthy cells, how this affects the way sarcoma develops and how to prevent this. Other projects will focus on the patient experience and how care and support can be improved to ensure the best possible quality of life for people with sarcoma.
Specific work on the immune system within tumours and therapies targeting this comes from a project led by Professor David Pinato at Imperial College London, investigating how Kaposi’s sarcoma responds to immunotherapy in a clinical trial. Dr Paul Huang’s team at the Institute of Cancer Research are focusing on identifying drug targets in leiomyosarcoma in the hope to discover new targets for treatment. Both projects are aiming to improve outcomes, accelerate personalised treatment, and reduce negative side effects for individuals.
We’re thrilled to be collaborating with the Sarah Burkeman Trust and GIST Cancer UK on specific grants, allowing us together to commit more funds for this important research.
At Sarcoma UK our goal is to fund innovative projects at the forefront of research using new powerful technologies to achieve better outcomes. In this grant round we’re thrilled to support Professor Darryl Overby’s team at Imperial College London as they explore using new cutting-edge microscopic technologies to study the spread of leiomyosarcoma within tissues.
We know that improving quality of life is a priority for patients, so we have committed funding for a project led by Dr Laura Magill at the Birmingham Centre for Observational and Prospective Studies looking at the impact of monitoring after surgery on quality of life and aiming to identify the best follow-up plans.
Dr Sorrel Bickley, Director of Research, Policy and Support at Sarcoma UK, said:
“We are thrilled to be committing over £1.4 million across ten important and innovative projects, with focus on investigating new and better treatments, and gaining deeper knowledge of sarcoma with the aim of improving outcomes, quality of life and personalising care.
We are delighted to be collaborating with GIST Cancer UK and the Sarah Burkeman Trust, and together we can accelerate progress in sarcoma diagnosis and treatment. We thank all of our supporters, for giving their time and donations, as this would not be possible without their generosity.”
The new funded projects are:
Investigating markers on cells in leiomyosarcoma for precision medicine led by Dr Paul Huang at the Institute of Cancer Research
Reactivating the immune system to tackle osteosarcoma that has spread to the lungs led by Professor Agi Grigoriadis at King’s College London (In collaboration with the Sarah Burkeman Trust)
Identifying the ‘Achilles heel’ of a genetic change in GIST to design better treatments led by Professor Sarah McClelland at Bart’s Cancer Institute (In collaboration with GIST Cancer UK)
Understanding what helps and hinders children with sarcoma be physically active after treatment led by Dr Morven Brown at the University of Newcastle
‘Sleeping cells’: preventing resistance to chemotherapy in osteosarcoma led by Dr Lucia Cottone at University College London
Understanding how Kaposi’s sarcoma responds to immunotherapies led by Professor David Pinato at Imperial College London
Engineering on a microscopic scale: mimicking how leiomyosarcoma spreads in the body led by Professor Darryl Overby at Imperial College London
Making better models of liposarcoma led by Dr Zoe Walters at the University of Southampton
Reassurance or anxiety – how does the intensity of monitoring for sarcoma after surgery impact patients’ quality of life and survival? Led by Dr Laura Magill at the Birmingham Centre for Observational and Prospective Studies (BiCOPS)
Using the power of a supercomputer to improve outcomes in GIST led by Dr Dean Bryant at the University of Southampton (In collaboration with GIST Cancer UK)
