Championing a new era in

research.

The newsletter for Worldwide Cancer Research science partnersPROGRESSWe’re making Issue 5 – 2014-2015

whatever it takes,wherever it takes us.

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We always like to hear from supporters. Please get in touch if you would like to share your thoughts or want to find out about other ways you can support us.

For any questions about our cancer research, please contact our Scientific Advisor, Dr Lara Bennett, at: makingprogress@worldwidecancerresearch.org

For events and fundraising: events@worldwidecancerresearch.org

For all other enquiries please contact: enquiries@worldwidecancerresearch.org

Call: 01334 477910

Visit: www.worldwidecancerresearch.org

Write to us at:WORLDWIDE CANCER RESEARCHMadras HouseSt AndrewsFifeKY16 9EH

WORLDWIDE CANCER RESEARCH is a charity registered in Scotland, No: 152991 Charity No: SC022918.

Can we help

Welcome.Your donations help fund some of the most ground-breaking cancer research projects around the world. In this issue we will be taking a look at rare childhood diseases. Because rare conditions affect so few people, they can sometimes receive less attention. So we are especially proud to have funded over £1.2 million in research into Fanconi anaemia and made such progress. And on pages 6 – 7, we showcase some of our latest funding into tackling blood cancers including leukaemia, which accounts for around a third of all cancers diagnosed in children.

Our Head of Research, Dr Helen Rippon, also tells us why now is such an important time to be supporting cancer research.

Once you’ve read Making Progress, please pass it on and help inspire even more people to join the worldwide fight against cancer.

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Welcome 2

A golden era for cancer research 3

Our World 4

Beating blood cancers 6

A step forward for rare childhood disease 8

Realising the potential of immunotherapy 10

A virtual Pole-to-Pole 12

Do it your way 14

The question I am often asked is ‘why haven’t scientists found a cure for cancer?’ The answer is easy – the more scientists have probed the biology of cancer, the more complexity they have discovered. Research has told us that cancer is not one disease, it’s hundreds. No two cancers are the same, and even within one person, tumours that spread around the body become very different beasts. When we add to this the way cancers evade treatments, we begin to see how difficult the task of curing cancer is.

But we have come a long way since Richard Nixon launched ‘The War on Cancer’ back in 1971. Back then scientists had no understanding of cancer biology nor the technology to uncover it. Cancer was a dreaded and hidden enemy and it took another 20 years to begin reducing the cancer death rate.

Today we have amazing new technology never previously available. Our ability to sequence the human genome once took the effort of a huge international

consortium 13 years and around $3 billion. Now it can be produced in a mere week or two and costs much less than a second hand car. Professor Gareth Evans at the University of Manchester, funded by a Worldwide Cancer Research grant, used whole genome sequencing to identify the mutation responsible for a type of inherited spinal tumour.

With new concepts like personalised medicine, targeted drugs and therapies that harness the power of the immune system, the next decade will take us further in cancer medicine than the whole of the four previous decades. And that, for me, is why we need to keep funding the search for answers.

A golden era for cancer research.Dr Helen Rippon, Head of Research, explains why now is such an important time to be supporting cancer research.

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Dr Helen Rippon, Head of Research

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OUR

WORLD

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71918

98 256 15

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80

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1WE BELIEVE THAT BY

FUNDING THE BEST

CANCER RESEARCHERS

AROUND THE WORLD, WE

WILL FIND THE ANSWERS.

Scan with your smartphone and see

your support in action.

Scan the QR code to explore our interactive world map of the cancer research you help to fund. Find out more about the innovative projects happening right now.

4

Dr Louis Vermeulen at the Academic Medical

Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, wants to

help people who have increased risk of bowel cancer. Like other cancers, bowel cancer can develop if cancerous faulty cells gain the advantage over healthy cells. Dr Vermeulen is searching for new compounds which could stop these cells before they take hold.

BOWEL CANCER

2014FOR 3 YEARS

Total projects funded (1979 – 2014)

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WORLD

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Dr Gertraud Orend at Inserm

DR Grand-Est in Strasbourg, France, is

using our grant to find out how breast cancer can hijack and manipulate the immune system for its own benefit. If successful, her work could help pave the way to more effective and safer cancer treatments.

Unfortunately, ovarian cancer can spread quickly.

Dr Patrick Caswell and his team at the University of

Manchester in the UK want to find out exactly how tiny hook-like molecules called integrins might alter cancer cell movement in the body. He hopes to reveal new ways of targeting drugs to stop ovarian cancer spreading.

OVARIAN CANCER

2014FOR 3 YEARS

BREAST CANCER

2014FOR 3 YEARS

09_ Ireland36_ Israel125_ Italy76_ The Netherlands01_ New Zealand15_ Norway05_ Portugal01_ Russian Federation01_ Singapore34_ Spain20_ Sweden27_ Switzerland38_ USA719_ England08_ Northern Ireland256_ Scotland18_ Wales

12_ Argentina59_ Australia20_ Austria01_ Belarus11_ Belgium16_ Canada02_ China01_ Cyprus01_ Czech Republic10_ Denmark09_ Finland80_ France54_ Germany15_ Greece04_ Hong Kong07_ Hungary04_ India

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Blood cancers like lymphoma and leukaemia can affect people of any age. Although relatively rare in adults, they account for over a third of all cancers in children. These cancers disrupt the immune system, making even very mild infections dangerous to the patient. Right now we are funding 22 active research projects around the world, working to improve the lives of patients with blood cancers.

Beating blood cancers.

22RESEARCH PROJECTS

WORLDWIDE

It’s only thanks to you that we can fund valuable blood cancer research like this – and it’s already having an impact.

Treating leukaemia

WHO: DR BRIAN HUNTLY

WHERE: UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,

ENGLAND

In the UK, Dr Brian Huntly, at the University of Cambridge, is trying to find new ways to treat acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). He is studying how two specific proteins may interact with the HOXA9 protein, which drives around half of all AML cases. “If this research is successful,” says Dr Huntly, “it will set the scene for targeting the interactions between these three proteins as a much needed potential novel therapeutic for AML.”

£210,032

Finding a common cause

WHO: DR LIBOR MACUREK

WHERE: INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR

GENETICS, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

The PPM1D gene recently hit the news when scientists found faulty PPM1D mutations could be linked to some cancers. With our first ever grant awarded to a scientist in the Czech Republic, Dr Libor Macurek, at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Prague, is investigating a new PPM1D mutation. He wants to see if the mutation affects development of lymphoma, breast cancer and bowel cancer.

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Preventing Hodgkin’s lymphoma

WHO: PROFESSOR CHRISTIAN MÜNZ

WHERE: UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH,

SWITZERLAND

With the recent success of the HPV virus cervical cancer vaccine, scientists are turning their attention to other cancer-causing viruses. Professor Christian Münz, at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, is working to develop a vaccine against the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). An effective EBV vaccine would prevent up to 200,000 cases of cancer worldwide every year, including cases of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

£202,386

Beating blood cancers.

£129,492

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“Worldwide Cancer Research’s funding

has had an enormous impact on the

Fanconi anaemia field.”

Dr Niedzwiedz

A STEP FORWARD FOR RARE CHILDHOOD DISEASE. The first step in developing a successful treatment is to find out what has gone wrong. Scientists are now closer than ever to understanding the causes of Fanconi anaemia.

Children born with the rare inherited condition Fanconi anaemia (FA) are more prone to leukaemia and other cancers. Bone marrow transplants are often the only option, and new treatments are desperately needed.

Helping to solve the riddle. Just 20 years ago the genes behind FA were still a mystery. But with intensive research these genetic secrets finally started to unravel, and as many as 13 different FA genes have now been identified.

With over £1.2 million spent on FA research so far, we are proud that scientists funded by us played a significant part in these findings.

Using grants from us, Professor Kevin Hiom in Dundee identified the FA gene BRIP1, and discovered that mutations in BRIP1 can cause the disease. Dr Ketan Patel in Cambridge helped to establish the role of another FA gene, FANCM. Demonstrating exactly how the best research works, a third scientist, Dr Wojciech Niedzwiedz in Oxford, built on these findings. He discovered further

valuable evidence defining new BRIP1 and FANCM functions in FA.

Doctors can now test for BRIP1 and other gene mutations when diagnosing FA. And with the genetic causes now more established, scientists can work on developing cutting-edge treatments like gene therapy.

Making an impact. Because rare conditions affect so few people, they can sometimes receive less attention. This makes it even more important that we continue to fund pioneering research into rare diseases like FA. When the stakes are so high, just a few extra scientists working on the problem can make all the difference.

PIONEERING GENE

RESEARCH£1.2 MON FA

RESEARCH

9

Text RESEARCH to 70004 to donate £5.

10

REALISING THEPOTENTIAL OF IMMUNOTHERAPY. For over 20 years, researchers have been trying to find a way to awaken the immune system to cancer; an approach called ‘immunotherapy’. At last, they are finally getting close.

Each day, every cell in your body suffers thousands of molecular injuries to its DNA. Our immune system is one of the reasons we don’t all develop cancer in the face of this daily genetic onslaught. By spotting and destroying our damaged cells it helps keep cancer at bay. But sometimes cancer can hide from the immune system and tumours develop. Immunotherapy aims to help our immune system find and attack these tumours.

Though the road has been long and arduous, success stories are now finally coming through. Ever more immunotherapies are now reaching patient trials. We have supported immunotherapy for over 15 years and we are delighted that thanks

to the generosity of our supporters, Worldwide Cancer Research helped to contribute to this success.

The WT1 gene is one potential immunotherapy success story. Dr Aswin Menke, in The Netherlands, used our funding to find a link between the WT1 gene and leukaemia. There are now at least six clinical trials underway, testing WT1-based drugs as immunotherapies for blood cancers. “Our data and that of others,” says Dr Menke, “validated WT1 as an immune target for leukaemia treatment.”

Professor Awen Gallimore, at Cardiff University, also used our funding to make inroads into immunotherapy.

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She found that a type of immune cell, called a ‘T reg’ cell, could be manipulated to stop bowel tumours growing in mice. From this, her team developed a new immunotherapy approach to treat bowel cancer patients, which is now being tested in a clinical trial.

In 2008, we funded Professor John Maher at King’s College London, to develop an immunotherapy for head and neck cancer. By genetically modifying immune cells in the laboratory, he aimed to help them home in on tumours when injected into the body. He had great results and this work has now also been approved for testing in a human trial.

These are just a few examples of successful immunotherapy research that Worldwide Cancer Research has funded over the years. Immunotherapy now has true potential to transform the way cancer is treated, and we are proud of the difference we have helped to make.

TARGETING THE IMMUNE

SYSTEM

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Supporter Paul Webb has set himself

the challenge of a lifetime – to travel a ‘virtual’ Pole-to-Pole journey, incorporating

seven marathons across seven continents to raise £20,000

for Worldwide Cancer Research.

7MARATHONS

20,000 KMIN 585 DAYS

Paul, originally from Newcastle, but now based in St Andrews, began his epic journey with the London Marathon in April and will finish with the Antarctic Ice Marathon on 19 November 2015. But so far the going has been tough with a major setback early on. Paul explains:

“I began hatching the plan to do a virtual Pole-to-Pole and raise money for cancer research with a great friend, Byron Truscott. Byron and I planned to run, swim, canoe and cycle the equivalent distance between the two Poles – 20,000 km – in the 585 days between the two marathons, sharing the distance between us.

Byron and I both have parents that have suffered from cancer and we believe passionately that cancer research is the only way we can fight this disease.

But back in July, Byron injured himself whilst running and he had to pull out. That left me to do the 20,000 km including seven marathons on my own.

I am trying to cover as much distance as possible whilst still holding down a full time job. I do some kind of activity six days a week – including a weekly fun run on St Andrews beach where anyone can join in - and have already covered over 4,500 km so I am now back on track.”

Paul completed The Great Wall of China Marathon in May, the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland, in September, and as we go to press he will be pounding the streets of the Big Apple as the New York City Marathon gets underway.

We wish Paul the best of luck and hope as many people as possible will support his amazing efforts.

If you’d like to make a donation and help Paul reach his £20,000 target, please visit www.justgiving.com/around-the-world-in-585-days or fill in the form at the back of this newsletter.

£20,000TARGET

Do it your way.

Make a regular gift – support Worldwide Cancer Research each month.

Payroll Giving – an easy and tax free way to give as you earn.

Home Money Box – your small change can help make a big difference to our worldwide fight against cancer.

Gifts in Wills – make a lasting difference and leave a gift to fund our worldwide fight against cancer.

Fundraise – run a marathon, climb a mountain, host a coffee morning: raise funds your way.

Gift Aid – make donations worth 25% more at no extra cost to you.

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From taking on the challenge of a lifetime, to funding vital research with your spare change, you can choose how to play your part in the worldwide fight against cancer.

Wit

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nd p

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issi

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f The

Roy

al M

int.

Gift in memory – support vital cancer research in the name of a loved one.

Text to donate – text RESEARCH to 70004 to donate £5.

Prize draws – play for a chance to win and help raise funds for cancer research.

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There’s no better feeling than doing a good deed. It’s a mini moment of elation that we carry around with us for the rest of the day. It’s also the kind of feeling most of us like to repeat once we’ve experienced it. Payroll Giving takes that feeling and makes it bigger and better.

In a nutshell, Payroll Giving is a simple, easy, tax-efficient way to make a regular donation to Worldwide Cancer Research. It allows you to make donations directly from your pay or pension. The donations are made directly to the charity after your National Insurance contributions are calculated but before Income Tax is worked out and deducted. So you only pay tax on what’s left, which means

you get tax relief on your donations immediately – and at your highest rate of tax.

The real appeal of Payroll Giving means you can give more without paying more. And if everyone in your organisation got behind Worldwide Cancer Research then the difference you make would be huge.

If you’d like to receive more information about how you could get the people you work with involved in raising vital donations in a tax-efficient way to Worldwide Cancer Research, contact dorothyc@worldwidecancerresearch.org or send back the information request form attached.

Be a Payroll Giving hero everyday.

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Please write clearly in BLOCK CAPITALS. Please use this reply form if you would like to make a further donation to our work or request information.

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Here is my gift of £ to support Paul’s Pole-to-Pole journey.

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whatever it takes,wherever it takes us.

ThanksYou give what you can. You go the extra mile. You do amazing things. We appreciate everything you do to raise funds for pioneering cancer research all over the world.

www.worldwidecancerresearch.org

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whatever it takes,wherever it takes us.

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