Statement of Intent for Children’s and Young People’s Cancer Research

Cancer in children and young people is different to cancer in adults – from the types of cancer to the specific challenges facing the research community. Our statement of intent outlines how we intend to support researchers to overcome these challenges and drive progress in children’s and young people’s cancer research.

Challenges with research into children’s and young people’s cancers

Too few researchers
Too little discovery research
Not enough industry support
Poor awareness
Fragmented expertise
Lack of research tools

How we’re tackling these challenges

We consulted UK and international researchers in the field, as well as patients and parents who have been affected. Following these consultations, we identified three key priorities areas – people, community and infrastructure. By focusing on these areas, we aim to increase high-quality research across the translational pipeline and in all types of cancer affecting children and young people.

We want to support researchers to overcome the challenges so we can increase the chance of survival for children and young people and improve their quality of life during and after treatment.

Build research capacity in the UK

We launched the Cancer Research UK-Children with Cancer UK Innovation Awards which is supporting five UK teams of world-leading scientists, with up to £1 million each.

We launched the international SU2C-CRUK Paediatric Cancer New Discoveries Challenge which is supporting three new research collaborations between UK and US labs. Each collaboration will receive $1 million over two years, with possible extensions of $5 million over 3 – 4 years for the most promising projects.
We recently funded £20 million for the Cancer Grand Challenge team NexTGen, to develop novel therapies to target unique features in solid tumours in children.

Develop and support a coordinated research community

We will host community building workshops and events to support conversations and collaboration between lab scientists and clinicians, and between scientists from different research fields.

We will continue to engage and collaborate with research communities not usually associated with children’s and young people’s cancers, encouraging them to apply their wide knowledge and expertise to this area of cancer research.

Ensure the research community has the tools and infrastructure it needs to progress

We will build and link together resources, for example research data and tissue samples, and fund the development of vital research tools through our funding award schemes.
All of our funding schemes are open and available for the children and young people cancer research community to fund the development of vital research tools.
Our Discovery Programme Awards provide long-term support for broad, multidisciplinary research and our Clinical Trial Awards support clinical trials of cancer treatment with the aim of improving patient outcomes.

In addition, to continue to support the community in the long term:

We will continue to work with existing and new partners to drive progress, awareness and advocacy of children’s and young people’s cancers and the research still needed in this area.
We will explore how we can support the relationship between the academic research community and the pharmaceutical industry.
We will continue to work with the research community and patients and their families to develop a dynamic approach which can adapt to meet the changing, long-term needs of research in this area.

Our research strategy

Our research strategy shapes how we'll discover more about the mechanisms of how cancer develops and progresses to unlock new and better ways to prevent, detect and treat it.

We remain committed to prioritising cancers that affect children and young people and in the financial year 2021/22, we spent £13.4m on research specific to cancers that affect 0-24-year-olds, making us the biggest charitable funder of research into children’s and young people’s cancers in the UK.

Explore our research strategy

Latest news and feature stories

Paving the way: How biopsies are offering hope to children with aggressive brain tumours
For decades, clinical trials of DIPG were based on work done using samples from adult brain tumours that looked similar to DIPG down a microscope. None of these studies were able to provide answers and because of the lack of actual DIPG samples, there was a gap in our understanding of the biology of the disease.

Childhood cancer survivors at greater risk of ill health
People who survive cancer in childhood have a higher risk of ill health as they grow older, according to new research published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.

Delivering the future of paediatric brain tumour therapy
Dr Lisa Ruff tells us why drug delivery is so important for the treatment of paediatric brain tumours – and why hydrogels could be key to a breakthrough…

Thinking outside the box to tackle an aggressive children’s cancer
How our partnership with Children with Cancer UK is helping to transform our understanding of children’s and young people’s cancers.

Kinder and more effective – why childhood cancers need specific treatments
Dr Sally George tells us about her work on neuroblastoma and why childhood cancers really do need specific research to develop the most effective treatments.