ICR awarded $25m by Cancer Grand Challenges to research solid tumours in children

Globally, cancer is currently the most leading cause of death due to disease among children

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) has announced it has been selected to receive a Cancer Grand Challenges (CGC) award of up to $25m to research the challenges of solid tumours in children.

First launched in 2020 by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), CGC now brings together 1,200 researchers and 16 teams worldwide to take on 13 of “cancer’s toughest challenges”.

Currently the leading cause of death due to disease among children globally, most outcomes for some childhood cancers have not improved in more than three decades.

The CGC team PROTECT aims to explore new, less invasive and more targeted treatments for children living with cancers.

For the next five years, the PROTECT team, involving experts from the ICR and the Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg in Germany, will use protein degradation strategies to target previously undruggable drivers of children’s cancers.

Funded by CRUK, the NCI, the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the Children Cancer Free Foundation, team PROTECT is one of five new teams funded through CGC.

Utilising the ICR’s Centre for Protein Degradation within its Centre for Drug Discovery, researchers will use a targeted technique that involves breaking down cancer proteins as opposed to switching off their function, to treat cancer.

Across ten institutions and five countries, the team comprises clinicians, advocates and scientists with expertise in paediatric oncology, targeted protein degradation, high-throughput chemical screening, medical chemistry, structural biology, tumour biology, preclinical drug testing and clinical trials.

Louis Chesler, professor of paediatric cancer biology, ICR and consultant in paediatric oncology at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation, said: “We need innovative new treatment approaches for children with cancer that are effective and have very few side effects.

“Joining these international teams will have a monumental impact on paediatric tumour research.”