The Christie NHS FT Annual Report & Accounts 2019-20

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report & Accounts 2019-20

Research and Innovation

This year we have continued to cement our reputation nationally and internationally as a major centre for cancer research by making a significant contribution to the advancement of therapies for patients. Our extensive research programme is widely recognised for improving patient outcomes by using research and innovation to deliver clinical improvements that become new standards of care. With a focus on prevention and early detection, our research has built a reputation around targeted treatments tailored to the patient. Developing a personalised medicine approach, we are making significant strides toward enabling patients to live with and beyond cancer. We are investigating everything from understanding the molecular and cellular basis of cancer to the development and testing of novel therapies Partnerships Effective partnerships are at the core of everything we do. Working with the University of Manchester and Cancer Research UK, under the umbrella of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC), clinicians and scientists from different disciplines work side-by-side to realise the shared goal of driving forward innovative research for the benefit of patients. The Christie is also the lead partner in the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC) cancer domain. The MAHSC is one of eight academic health science centres (AHSCs) in England. The Centre brings scientific discoveries from the lab to the ward, operating theatre and general practice, so patients benefit from innovative new treatments. Innovation Our partnerships with industry – pharmaceutical and technological - are also vital as we strive to develop new personalised therapies for cancer. Our ambition is make Manchester and subsequently the UK a leader in real world data driven research, discovering and developing the

next generation of cancer medicines, realising the benefits of personalised healthcare and contributing to the fulfilment of the UK Government’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. Our aim is to create the UK's first rapid learning health system for oncology. Working with industry partners, we are mobilising real-time patient outcome data, linking genomics data and patient reported feedback whilst extending its utility to the wider healthcare network. Radiotherapy big data infrastructure led to a step-change in the number of real-world data studies supported (>20 in 2019). The ESTRO Varian award was won an international collaboration led by Manchester and Maastricht. They demonstrated machine learning without sharing patient data, quickly and at scale (20,000+ lung cancer patients worldwide), allowing researchers to develop comprehensive and robust models to improve the personalisation of radiotherapy worldwide (Deist et al. 2020). TORPEdO - the UK’s first clinical trial involving protons, led by Dr David Thomson, opened in February 2020 and has started the collection of longitudinal translational samples. Infrastructure There has been great success in Prevention and Early Detection (PED) research in Manchester over the past year. Manchester’s CRUK International Alliance in Cancer Early Detection (ACED) Centre of Excellence was awarded £3.2m. This grant provides a large uplift of resource across the basic science, lung, gynaecological and breast cancer groups. Manchester is now one of a small number of UK centres as part of the ACED Alliance, with the opportunity to collaborate on Early Detection programmes with the other UK and US partners . The Radiotherapy Related Research (RRR) team in Manchester is world-renowned. Over the last five

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