Brain cancer has now overtaken leukaemia as t he leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children. Because of the lack of research children with brain cancer are given a poorer prognosis than those children with leukaemia.

The largest single founder of laboratory based research in the U.K is the Samantha Dickson Research Trust. They have a large, professional Medical Advisory Board and are currently funding several projects.

you can also contact Angela Dickson for friendly impartial advice: Tel/Fax: 01252 627426

Support/Research: 01252 617843

Email: SDRT1996@aol.com

Website: www.sdrt.co.uk

The Trustees of the Ellie Savage Memorial Trust are delighted to announce that they are funding a new brain tumour research project with the aims of finding a new treatment for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) which was the type of tumour Ellie had. Below are the details of the project

The Development of novel toxin cargo delivery systems for
glioblastoma multiforme

Professor John Darling University of Wolverhampton

£103,760 over 3 years

Jointly funded by SDRT, UKBTS and ELLIE'S TRUST

Malignant brain tumours, like glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are very hard to treat. Surgical removal is impossible and the tumours are resistant to both radiotherapy and chemotherapy. GBM continues to provide a formidable clinical challenge. The median survival of patients with GBM is still only of the order of 6-9 months and less than 5% of patients remain alive at 2 years after diagnosis.

There is a need for new types of therapy based on a better understanding of the biology of these tumours, and to develop non-toxic alternatives that selectively deliver toxins to tumour cells. The applicants wish to combine their experience in order to develop new therapies for these tumours.

In this particular case, Professor Darling and his team intend to make in the laboratory small chains of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, called peptides. The laboratory will identify three different specific receptors present on the tumour cells, will manufacture "cell penetrating peptides" that bind to proteins that are over-expressed on GBM cells and then deliver toxic cargo molecules into the centre of the cancer cells to kill the cell.

Three classes of cytotoxic drugs will be examined, temozolomide, carboplatin and a peptide containing a PCNA-binding motif that has shown to interfere with cell growth.

The applicants have already shown in preliminary experiments that this approach is possible and that peptide constructs can be made which are about 100-fold more toxic to GBM than non-specific toxic peptides. This project will provide a systematic study in order to identify the most effective peptides to target GBM cells, what is the most effective toxin, the most effective cell penetrating peptide and how these might be combined to produce promising hybrid peptides for eventual use in patients in clinical studies.