The Christie NHS FT Annual Report & Accounts 2019-20

Research

A strategy for collaborations in cancer research is under development with leaders at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne following collaborative visit in February 2020. A number of areas of mutual interest have been identified and initial projects planned in: early detection of cancer, radiobiology, real world data, nursing, cancer immunology and theragnostics. Leadership Professors Rob Bristow and John Radford were elected as fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences, recognising their significant contributions to medical science, cutting edge research discoveries and translating these developments into benefits for patients and the wider society. Prof Corinne Faivre-Finn was selected for the prestigious 2019 James D.Cox Lectureship Award for Radiation Oncology in recognition of her longstanding work in the field of radiation oncology. Marcel van Herk was awarded an honorary fellowship of IPEM and gave the George Edelstyn lecture at the Royal College of Radiology. Performance In 2019-20, The Christie continued to increase the number of patients on clinical trials. Excluding screening failures, there was an increase in consented patients on trials by 15% at the end of the year, surpassing the 10% internal target. In fact, since 2015-16 there has been a 50% increase in patients consented to research studies at The Christie. At the same period we increased the number of new commercial studies opened by 19% in comparison to 2018/19. The R&I division continued to perform well against the NIHR study set up performance

years it has built a broad team of medical physicists, biologists, imagers and radiation oncologists to develop and marry novel discoveries with the most technologically advanced radiotherapy centre outside of North America. This year, we have been awarded a new CRUK RadNet Centre of Excellence grant in Radiobiology (£16.5M/5 years in addition to a coordinated £4.5M funding of protons research in head and neck cancer). Co-Directed by Professors Rob Bristow and Tim Illidge, the award brings together a multidisciplinary team with key contributions outside as well as expertise in imaging, in vivo models and bringing in collaborators with expertise to support studies of multimorbidity and polypharmacy. RadNet will also enable the recruitment of 5 new academic recruits, increasing critical mass in radiotherapy research. The NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at The Christie which receives annual funding of c£1m for the continued development of specialised, early-phase experimental cancer research studies has supported early phase clinical research, focussing on patients taking part in clinical trials of the newest anti-cancer drugs which are not yet available as standard of care treatment. The centre continues to be the leading UK site and is still on track to become one of the top three Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres for the delivery of precision medicine in Europe by 2020, through augmentation of its scientific and clinical experimental cancer medicine capabilities by supporting over 500 patients/annum receiving investigative medicinal products. International New collaborations in cancer research have been secured which include links with Toronto (Prof Catharine West and Dr Cynthia Eccles), Melbourne (Prof Rob Bristow) and in South East Asia (Prof Ananya Choudhury).

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