Driving global change in childhood cancer: GOSH Charity’s biggest research collaboration yet

C-Further is an international consortium of researchers, clinicians, partners, and impact investors. It is dedicated to developing new cancer treatments exclusively for children and young people.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity) joins Cancer Research Horizons (the innovation arm of Cancer Research UK) and LifeArc as a core partner to help drive innovation and address current challenges in children’s and young people’s cancer treatment.

Childhood cancer research is severely underfunded compared to adults, with only 2p of every £1 spent on cancer research in the UK going towards childhood cancer. Although cancer is the biggest killer of children aged one to 14 in the UK (CRUK), only 12 anti-cancer medicines have been specifically approved for paediatric cancer in the last 10 years, compared to over 150 for adult cancers (SIOPE).

The vision of C-Further is to break away from the conventional approach of repurposing adult therapies for children, which can cause lasting harm to developing bodies, and create a world where young patients are treated effectively with tailored treatments.

As a core partner, we will contribute to the consortium’s strategy and operations. This is in addition to our financial investment of £10 million, bringing C-Further’s total funding to £37 million. This is our largest research funding partnership commitment to date. 

This partnership strongly aligns with our cancer research strategy and one of its key priorities: the development of new treatments that are more effective and targeted.

Dr Aoife Regan, Director of Impact and Charitable Programmes at GOSH Charity, says:

“GOSH Charity is thrilled to join C-Further as a Core Partner, and we look forward to working closely with Cancer Research Horizons and LifeArc to identify new therapeutic project opportunities with the greatest impact for children and young people facing cancer.

"I’m confident that together, we can help promising treatments reach clinical trials and ultimately to children with the hardest-to-treat cancers. Alongside our ongoing appeal to build a new world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH, this exciting partnership will help to drive our mission to give seriously ill children the best chance, and the best childhood, possible.”

Olivia was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour when she was two years old. Within six hours of diagnosis, she was transferred from her local hospital to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

Her family were told her brain tumour could not be surgically removed due to its position. Instead of operating, Oliva underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy at GOSH. Olivia’s mum, Vicki talks about the side effects of this treatment:

“Unfortunately, Olivia did not respond well to this, experiencing side effects such as vomiting, weight loss, hair loss and lack of movement and initially tests showed problems with her kidneys. Her tumour was still growing, right eye weakness getting worse and now virtually no sight in her left eye.”

The chemotherapy treatment failed and so in 2016 Olivia was enrolled into a clinical trial at GOSH. She was the first child to be part of this new drug trial using a cancer growth blocker to target the exact mutation that causes her tumour to grow. Olivia’s quality of life greatly improved on the trial in comparison to chemotherapy.

Vicki says:

“Chemotherapy as a medicine is so old, it was developed way before I was even born. I think it's about time that a new medicine was made available to all. It’s a shame that the new meds take so long, like six years in the pipeline. I think of all those children now that still have to go through the gruelling chemo, when breakthroughs are just around the corner.

“Olivia was just so good on the trial with the medication. As soon as we started on the meds, I could see that all of the side effects that Olivia had experienced from chemo, that had negatively affected us as a family, had gone. Going on the trial pretty much gave us a normal life!”

Today, Olivia is thriving at secondary school.

“Livvy’s a fighter and meets every challenge with a cheeky smile. It’s current research that is hopefully finding new treatments for her. We are so thankful for all the research carried out into brain tumours. Without this Livvy would have no option but to have radiotherapy with lots of harsh long-term effects or go blind with very reduced mobility. This motivates us to fundraise for GOSH to find answers for other children like Olivia.”

We believe that through targeted and dedicated research, we can transform the lives of children and young people with cancer.

That’s why we are committing at least £15 million over the next five years to our new cancer research strategy.