Can one cure work for multiple sarcoma types?
Cancer types:
Sarcoma
Project period:
–
Research institute:
Institute of Cancer Research
Award amount:
£262,145
Location:
United Kingdom
Dr Clare Isacke is investigating a potentially game-changing way to treat sarcoma. A new targeted treatment could work on many different types of sarcoma, giving hope to patients around the world.
Why is this research needed?
Sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that develops in connective tissue in our bodies including bones, muscle fat or nerves. There are over 100 different types of sarcoma, and a lot of them affect children and young adults.
Since there are so many different types of sarcoma, finding a cure that works for lots of different patients is challenging. Luckily Dr Clare Isacke and her team in London are tackling this challenge head-on. They hope to develop an innovative type of cancer treatment that could potentially work for a broad range of sarcoma patients.
I am thrilled to be a Curestarter researcher - I love the name because it is an honest name and serves as an everyday reminder of what we are here to do.
What is the science behind this project?
CAR-T cell therapy is a cutting edge type of immunotherapy where immune cells called T cells are programmed to recognise and attack cancer cells. This works a bit like training and upgrading a security team to better spot intruders.
This sort of cancer treatment is made possible by exploiting differences between cancer cells and healthy cells. The team are investigating one of these differences - a molecule called MRC2 that is found on the surface of sarcoma cells but not on the surface of healthy cells.
Dr Clare Isacke has already shown that MRC2 has huge potential to be used in CAR-T therapy. Now, thanks to you, she is collaborating with world-class immunotherapy experts and clinicians from one of the largest sarcoma units in Europe to explore this idea further. They will investigate how best to give T-cells the tools they need to effectively spot and destroy sarcoma cells using MRC2 as the target.
What difference could this project make to patients in the future?
The team hope this pioneering work will lead to a clinical trial for a new sarcoma treatment. If successful this would be game-changing for sarcoma patients around the world who currently have limited treatment options.
Complete United Kingdom
Sarcoma
Many synovial sarcoma tumour patients don’t respond well to treatments so this project wants to find new cures by better understanding what causes it.
Researcher: Dr Gerard Brien
Understanding the cause of synovial sarcoma to improve survival
Complete United Kingdom
Sarcoma
Late stage sarcomas remain very hard to treat and not enough is understood about them, so this project hopes to be the starting point for vital new sarcoma cures.
Researcher: Professor Kevin Hiom
Understanding the development of sarcoma – a rare tissue cancer
Active Germany
Sarcoma
Thanks to Curetarters this team in Germany are exploring a creative new cure for a cancer that affects children and teenagers.
Researcher: Dr Max Knott
Can a virus be adapted into a childhood cancer cure?
Donate today to start new cures
Be part of the united effort to stop lives being cut short by cancer.