Section of Paediatric Oncology

Chairman: Professor Andy Pearson

The aim of Section of Paediatric Oncology is improve survival for the 25% of children with cancer who at present die from their disease. To achieve this aim the overall focus of the Section is the development of new anti-cancer agents which specifically target the genetic abnormalities that cause childhood and young people’s malignancies. The Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology Targeted Drug Development Programme at The Institute of Cancer Research/Royal Marsden Hospital has been created to fulfil the international unmet need in drug discovery for children with cancer. Through this programme it is envisaged that there will be further improvement in survival of children and young people with cancer.

The programme comprises target identification, drug discovery, pre-clinical evaluation, preclinical and early clinical functional imaging and clinical trials and is a comprehensive approach to the identification, development and evaluation of new targeted therapies in paediatric malignancy.  This programme focuses on developing agents for poor prognosis paediatric tumours: - high grade glioma, poor prognosis Wilms tumour, sarcoma, high risk neuroblastoma and high risk leukaemia, as these malignancies are the major causes of death from malignancy at the present time.

For example high grade astrocytomas in children and young people are associated with a very poor prognosis with less than 10% of children surviving and these malignancies are one of the four major causes of death from malignancy in childhood. Furthermore, high grade astrocytomas are one of the very few tumours where there has been no improvement in survival with the outcome in 2005 being identical in that of 1977. Currently there is a paucity of active agents for the therapy of these tumours with nitrosoureas and temozolomide being the only established agents.

A central theme of the programme is the translation of laboratory research to clinical trials, which will ultimately alter international practice in paediatric oncology.

In the Section of Paediatric Oncology

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Research SectionsAcademic Department of BiochemistryBreakthrough Breast Cancer Research CentreCancer Research UK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation TrustCancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics UnitJoint Department of PhysicsNHS Clinical Research ProgrammeSection of Academic Radiotherapy and Department of Radiotherapy (including Psychology Research Group)Section of Cancer GeneticsSection of Cell and Molecular Biology including the Cancer Research UK Tumour Cell Signalling UnitSection of Clinical TrialsSection of EpidemiologySection of Gene Function and RegulationSection of Haemato-OncologySection of MedicineSection of Molecular CarcinogenesisSection of Paediatric OncologySection of Structural BiologySection of Surgery