Health and Social Care Secretary has announced that an
estimated £20 million in funding will be invested through
the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) over
the next 5 years.
The funding will start with a formal call to research teams
to put forward new proposals, to access NIHR funding
in April.
In addition, Cancer Research UK will invest £25 million in
research into brain tumours over the next 5 years. This is
on top of £13 million each year on the research and
development of cancer treatments.
Cancer Research UK’s funding will support 2 new specialised
centres:
- The Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, based
at the University of Cambridge
- The Institute of Cancer Research, London
These centres bring together world-leading experts to
discover and develop new treatments to tackle brain tumours
in children. A centre focusing on adult brain tumours will
open later this year.
The funding announcement follows the publication of
the report of the task
and finish working group on brain tumour research, led
by the government Chief Scientific Adviser .
Health and Social Care Secretary said:
While survival rates for most cancers are at record
levels, the prognosis for people with brain tumours has
scarcely improved in over a generation. I am grateful to
and other MPs who have campaigned with great
dignity and courage to raise awareness of this issue.
Our ambition is to deliver a big uplift in the funding of
brain cancer research, while galvanising the clinical and
scientific communities to explore new avenues for
diagnosis and treatment in the future. It is a chance to
create a genuine step change in survival rates for one of
the deadliest forms of cancer.
Sir Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK Chief Executive, said:
Brain tumours remain a huge challenge, with survival
barely improving over the last 30 years. Since we laid
out our plans to tackle this challenge in 2014, Cancer
Research UK has already substantially increased its
funding into brain tumours and attracted some of the
world’s leading experts to the UK.
This new funding will mean that we can accelerate these
efforts further, by developing a critical mass of
expertise in key areas and supporting work along the
entire research pipeline to improve survival for children
and adults with brain tumours.
Each year around 11,400 people in the UK are diagnosed with
a brain tumour and just 14% of people survive their disease
for 10 or more years.
