The Institute of Cancer Research

The Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the Sutton campus of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is working to find, test and validate new treatment options for paediatric-type diffuse high-grade gliomas (PDHGG).

The team is led by Professor Chris Jones, Professor of Childhood Brain Tumour Biology and Preclinical Chair of the International CONNECT Consortium, which runs clinical trials for childhood brain tumour patients in the UK, North America, Europe and Australia.

PDHGG are a collection of brain tumours which include diffuse hemispheric glioma (DHG), and diffuse midline glioma (DMG) such as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). These affect children and young adults and have extremely poor clinical outcomes. For some subtypes, less than 5% of patients survive more than two years.

To improve the outcomes of children and young adults with these devastating tumours, the Centre acts as an international hub for the development of new treatments, accelerating more therapies into clinical trials.

The goal is to get treatments into trials within the next five years.

Professor Chris Jones introduces the Centre of Excellence at ICR

Finding and testing new drugs for PDHGG

  • Identifying and testing new drugs

    Using their extensive knowledge of the molecular make up of paediatric tumours, the research team is working to identify new therapeutic strategies and promising drug combinations for PDHGG tumours, including DIPG and DHG, formerly known as paediatric glioblastoma.

    They are assessing the best ideas from their lab, and others, as well as from drug companies, and will be selecting those that show the most promise for further testing.

  • Generating the data for clinical trials

    The most promising drug combinations and therapeutic strategies are tested thoroughly against the Research Centre's jointly-developed and internationally-agreed guidelines to produce the highest quality pre-clinical data.

    This robust testing will not only highlight the best candidate treatments for clinical trial, it will provide the data required to get the trial approved.

  • Setting up clinical trials through CONNECT

    When the Research Centre has identified a promising drug combination or therapeutic strategy, it will work with established CONNECT platforms worldwide to set up clinical trials in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America, getting the new treatment to patients as fast and safely as possible.

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What is CONNECT?

COllaborative Network for NEuro-oncology Clinical Trials conducts clinical trials in high-risk paediatric brain tumours (such as diffuse midline glioma) to investigate combinations of novel drugs with traditional therapies. It is a global partnership of world-class childhood cancer centres and paediatric neuro-oncology experts.

Find out more about the CONNECT Consortium.

Exploring innovative treatments

The Centre of Excellence partners with other ICR researchers who are using innovative approaches to target cancer.

The Centre hosts cross-disciplinary PhD studentships to support multidisciplinary ICR researchers to expand their research into the paediatric oncology space, leveraging their unique skills and expertise to develop new therapies for PDHGG.

  • Using light to kill cancer cells

    Dr Gabriella Kramer-Marek, located at the ICR Centre of Cancer Imaging, is working with a Brain Tumour Research-funded PhD student to investigate the use of light with immunotherapy strategies (photoimmunotherapy) to target PDHGG cancer cells.

  • Brain-penetrant protein degradation

    Dr Gary Newton, based at the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery at ICR, is working with a Brain Tumour Research-funded PhD student to develop new drugs which break down cancer-specific proteins found in distinct groups of PDHGG tumours, and is working to ensure they cross the blood brain barrier

  • Can we use anti-cancer viruses to target paediatric tumours?

    Dr Julia Cockle, based at the Royal Marsden Hospital, is working with a PhD student to investigate the use of oncolytic (anti-cancer) viruses as a novel treatment approach for paediatric high-grade glioma.

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Working collaboratively with The Brain Tumour Charity

Emily Oliver, a University of Nottingham undergraduate from Surrey, was diagnosed with a DMG – also known as DIPG.

For her 21st birthday, Emily set up the Emily Oliver’s Fighting Fund – a supporter group of The Brain Tumour Charity. Since her death, Emily’s parents, Tim and Debi, have continued to fundraise in her memory, amassing a total of £200,000.

The funding, which represents a unique collaboration between The Brain Tumour Charity and Brain Tumour Research, will allow the research team at ICR to expand its ACVR1 and cholesterol metabolism project.

The project focuses on the relationship between the gene ACVR1, a known driver of cancer development in DMG, and the role of cholesterol metabolism in the development of these tumours.

Read more

Meet the research leads 

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