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Research in cancers of unmet need

We're building strong, sustainable research communities to drive improved outcomes for patients affected by brain, lung, pancreatic, oesophageal, liver and gastric cancers.

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What are cancers of unmet need?

Despite overall outcomes for people with cancer seeing excellent progress over the past 40 years, in some forms of cancer there has been little improvement in survival.   

These cancers of unmet need include the following cancers, all of which have five-year survival rates below 25%:

Medical icon showing the brain.

brain

Medical icon of the lungs.

lung

Medical icon of the pancreas.

pancreatic

Medical icon showing the oesophagus.

oesophageal

Medical icon showing the liver.

liver

Medical icon of the stomach.

gastric

We encourage proposals focussed on these cancers of unmet need across all our standard funding committees.  

Explore all funding opportunities

Our priorities 

We are addressing the critical need to accelerate progress for patients with cancers of unmet need through the following approaches:  

  • Building research communities with necessary capabilities: training the next generation of researchers in the field, and sparking new collaborations through convening events. 

  • Establishing sustainable research infrastructure: investing in world-leading research environments where researchers can thrive. 

  • Funding innovative and high-quality research: supporting a broad portfolio of research, from discovery science through to pioneering clinical trials. 

  • Translating discoveries to patient benefit: driving therapeutic innovation and accelerating translation of scientific advancements to the clinic.

Portfolio highlights

Explore highlights from our cancers of unmet need portfolio, with examples of the research, facilities and resources that we support to accelerate progress across brain, lung, pancreatic, oesophageal-gastric and liver cancers. 

Brain tumours

Brain Tumour Awards

Meet the research teams who received our Brain Tumour Awards. These launched in 2018 to boost discovery research tackling major challenges in brain tumours.

Brain Tumour Centres of Excellence

We are accelerating progress in UK brain tumour research through specialised centres of excellence. These investments are building critical capacity and training the next generation of researchers in world-leading environments.

International Glioma Cellular Genetics Resource

Our researchers have generated a comprehensive collection of patient-derived glioblastoma cell lines, alongside normal human control cell lines. This resource is available to the global research community to aid the development of new therapies for brain tumours.

Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission

We're a funding partner of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, which convenes key stakeholders in brain tumour research to deliver a national portfolio of programmes to improve outcomes for brain tumour patients.

Lung cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Oesophageal and gastric cancers

Liver cancer

News from our research network

Screenshot of Arnold Kriegstein from his video excerpt.

Brain cancer, developmental biology and ever-evolving lab tech

We caught up with Arnold Kriegstein on the important role of developmental biology for understanding brain cancers.

Screenshot of Steve Pollard from his video excerpt.

Glioblastoma, immunotherapy and transformative tech

We spoke to Steve Pollard about the cutting edge of glioblastoma research.

Headshot of Giulia Biffi.

CAFs and cross-talk – a recipe to close the gap on pancreatic cancer?

Giulia Biffi and her lab think the keys to tackling pancreatic cancer lie in the complexity of cancer associated fibroblasts.

Learn more about our work

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