A £2m boost for new ways to fight childhood cancer

CHILDREN with cancer could be given new hope after a funding boost for experimental treatments.

At least a dozen families every day receive the devastating news that their child has the disease.

Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres ( ECMCs) put drugs through early clinical trials to find new treatments.

Now 12 paediatric ECMCs across the UK are set to receive a £2.2million funding boost from the charity Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Little Princess Trust – the charity that provides wigs made from real hair, free of charge, to young people who have lost their hair through cancer.

The additional investment will more than double the funding for the paediatric ECMC network over the next five years.

Research includes clinical trials for blood cancers such as leukaemia, brain tumours that affect children such as medulloblastoma, and Wilm’s tumour – a kidney cancer that affects children. Scientists are working on personalised treatments, which may work better by targeting the specific tumour using its genetic fingerprint.

The money, in addition to a £40.8million funding boost for clinical trials into adult cancers at 17 ECMCs, comes after the Mail teamed up with Cancer Research UK to launch the Fighting to Beat Children’s Cancer campaign, which is raising money for vital research.

Dr Iain Foulkes, of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘The ECMC network is delivering the cancer treatments of the future, bringing new hope to people affected by cancer.’

Every year, around 4,200 children and young people under the age of 25 are diagnosed with cancer in the UK. The disease kills one in five of those – around 500 a year. Cancer Research UK estimates that childhood cancer will soar by a fifth in the next two decades.

Phil Brace, chief executive of The Little Princess Trust, said: ‘Since 2016, The Little Princess Trust has been funding research with the aim to improve outcomes with targeted treatments with less toxicity for children and young people with cancer. We have made progress but there is more to do.’

Rishi Sunak said he is ‘proud’ to support Fighting to Beat Children’s Cancer, which has received a £50,000 donation from the Mail’s charitable arm.