A second $5 million USD investment was awarded by CRUK to continue the BRAINatomy project – Manchester Cancer Research Centre

Manchester Cancer Research Centre shared a post on LinkedIn:

“A second $5 million USD investment was awarded by Stand Up To Cancer – Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to continue the BRAINatomy project which aims to deliver safer treatments for children with brain tumours. The award is a proud recognition of Manchester’s reputation as a world-leading centre in cancer research

Co-led by Professor Martin McCabe from The University of Manchester, the International paediatric team will now be using the methodology developed by Professor Marianne Aznar and colleagues to study the effects of proton therapy in children treated at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Universty Medical Center Groningen. BRAINatomy 2 also extends the collaboration to include colleagues at Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology which is the national children’s cancer hospital in the Netherlands.

The study will continue earlier work on the hypothalamus by Professor Thomas Merchant, lead investigator at St Jude, by using a clinical trial to identify when radiotherapy begins to affect this part of the brain and provide doctors info on when hormone replacement therapy should be administered. Another Another arm of this study will use a clinical trial to look at using anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce the effects of immune cell activation in RT

The team will investigate Proton Beam Therapy (a newer type of RT that can deliver a more targeted dose to the tumour, while avoiding more healthy brain) vs traditional Radiotherapu (which uses high energy x-rays/ photons) and assess how each treatment option affects children’s & young people’s brains.

Read more in our MCRC blog about how this research could be a real game-changer for generations to come as we develop ways to deliver RT accurately to tumours, avoiding sensitive areas of the brain and ultimately improving patient’s lives.”