Cancer Grand Challenges

October is #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth. We recently spoke with Joya Delgado Harris, a member of the #CancerGrandChallenges Advocacy Panel and breast cancer survivor. She shared about her lived experience being diagnosed with stage III-C triple positive #BreastCancer almost 17 years ago, when she was just 34. Joya said it's a profound honour to serve on the Cancer Grand Challenges Advocacy Panel alongside dedicated advocates who deeply understand the responsibility of #PatientEngagement, empowerment, and involvement. She shared that being part of a global research initiative which seeks to tackle the toughest challenges in cancer research is one of the most meaningful ways she can express her gratitude for the research process. Thank you Joya, for sharing your story.

🌟 The Mutographs impact report is now available 🌟 Mutographs, funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and led by Professor Sir Mike Stratton (then Director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute), was one of the first #CancerGrandChallenges teams. In 2017 they took on our unusual mutation patterns challenge, and over the course of seven years transformed our scientific understanding of carcinogenesis. In this new report, we delve further into their incredible impact. Read it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e24JxqMF

🌟 CANCER GRAND CHALLENGES IS HIRING 🌟 We're looking for a Director of Corporate And Foundation Relations! It's an incredible opportunity to work at the forefront of global #CancerResearch, developing and managing Cancer Grand Challenges' foundation and corporate relations program. It involves: ✅ Expanding and overseeing a portfolio of foundation and corporate prospects, partners and sponsors ✅ Developing and implementing cultivation and stewardship strategies for a growing portfolio of foundation and corporate prospects, partners and supporters ✅ Collaborating with leadership to assess foundations and corporations’ alignment with and potential to support and/or partner with Cancer Grand Challenges Learn more and apply today ➡ https://bit.ly/4eVTIMi

If current incentives are not sufficient to drive innovation in #PaediatricOncology – what would be?  We spoke with Sam Daems for his expert insights on the challenges and opportunities in developing #ChildhoodCancer therapeutics. Read more here 👉 https://bit.ly/3UjEPuP 🎗️ 💛 Thank you to Sam, Portfolio Director at Waterland Private Equity, Patient Advocate and member of the PROTECT Cancer Grand Challenges team, for this insightful piece—and to Phil Prime for capturing his thoughts. LifeArc Cancer Research UK Science and Innovation #PediatricOncology #RareCancer #CFurther #OnMyHorizon 

We're very pleased to announce the newest member of the #CancerGrandChallenges Scientific Committee: Professor Benjamin Haibe-Kains of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre! 🌟 Benjamin is known for his work on developing machine learning models for precision oncology, and will be bringing a unique and critical perspective to the committee as #ArtificialIntelligence becomes increasingly integrated in #CancerResearch. Learn more about him, his view on why the Cancer Grand Challenges approach is so important and what he hopes from the next round of challenges 👉 https://bit.ly/4f2wBz9

"Donna's experience with #CancerGrandChallenges team PRECISION has given her hope that future diagnoses of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) will be far less disruptive and draining than her own experience." PRECISION, funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and KWF Kankerbestrijding, was one of the first Cancer Grand Challenges teams. In 2017 they took on our lethal versus non-lethal cancers challenge, focussing on DCIS (which is sometimes referred to as “stage 0” #BreastCancer). In this article in Science Magazine, hear from PRECISION patient advocate Donna Pinto and team lead Jelle Wesseling of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, and learn more about the headway they made towards improving DCIS care for future generations with the condition 👉 https://bit.ly/4f3m32F #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth

"This course helped me to realise that I want to serve as a bridge between patients and researchers." 🔵 This is Katell's story: part of our cancer patient advocate voices series. 🔗 Learn more about our VOICE Science for Patient Advocates course: https://lnkd.in/e_2HgQvF 💬 "My name is Katell Maguet, I’m from France, and I’m currently based in The Netherlands. I’m a patient advocate for Cancer Grand Challenges’ team eDyNAmiC, which aims to understand how small circular DNA particles, called ecDNA, enable tumours to evolve and evade treatment. Three and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer at 40. I had multiple rounds of surgery and faced significant complications. I became aware of how little awareness there is of early-onset colorectal cancer, so I began sharing my story on LinkedIn. That’s where I first saw David (Dave) Chuter (who organises the VOICE course) posting about eDyNAmiC, which led me to become involved with the Cancer Grand Challenges and eventually with VOICE. I have a scientific background, having studied food science at university, which involved a lot of biology and chemistry. After university, I shifted my focus to consumer research, but I remember doing PCR reactions years ago, so it was fascinating coming back to the lab during VOICE. The chemistry between the VOICE participants was fantastic. We stayed at the university, ate together and got to know one another. Spending time with people who have different types of cancer gave me a fresh perspective. I know a lot about colorectal cancer but not as much about other types. The course made me realise that we shouldn’t even be talking about cancer by the organ it affects but by the type of tumour and the biomarkers. Every cancer is different, and there are even significant differences within the same tumour. I was shocked to learn that the chemotherapy I received was discovered in the 1960s – it’s 60 years old and still in use. Those older treatments can be brutal and have many side effects. But the new drugs are unbelievable. To meet the researchers working on them was inspiring. This course helped me to realise that I want to serve as a bridge between patients and researchers. I want to be a scientific patient voice and help fight fake news. Not every patient has the chance to come and take a course like VOICE, so I’m eager to share what I have learned. I’m also excited to work with the course organisers on the impact of VOICE. I’m incredibly grateful to all the researchers for their time and passion throughout the week." Queen Mary University of London | Queen Mary Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry | Cancer Research UK City of London Centre | #colorectalcancer #cancerpatient #patientadvocate

New study from #CancerGrandChallenges team SPECIFICANCER in Nature Magazine 📣 Today, SPECIFICANCER published a paper identifying a combination of inhibitors, targeting both epigenetic and oncogenic pathways, that drives differentiation to enable hijacking of tissue-specific cell death pathways in #TripleNegativeBreastCancer (TNBC). This work was led by Amy Schade, Ph.D. in the lab of Karen Cichowski of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.   In our article, we discuss the paradigms emerging from the team's work across multiple tumour types that drive tissue specificity and converge on epigenetic reprogramming by EZH2.   SPECIFICANCER is bringing hope of targeted combination therapies for TNBC this #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth, and is poised to start clinical trials with a transcriptional classifier to predict response. The team is tackling our tissue specificity challenge and is funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research. Read the article 👉 https://bit.ly/3NkbNaq

Recently we held the first of 8️⃣ global think tanks to help identify topics for our next round of #CancerGrandChallenges, launching in March 2025 ⏰ These think tanks mark the first step in our 2-year cycle (which you can learn more about here 👉 https://bit.ly/4et1dtH). They engage a diverse range of researchers, clinicians and patient advocates to stimulate debate and inspire thinking around the most pressing areas in cancer research right now. Our first think tank took place in Paris and was co-hosted by Institut national du cancer. We spoke to three attendees about their experience: 💡 Rene Bernards, Professor of Molecular Carcinogenesis The Netherlands Cancer Institute and member of the Cancer Grand Challenges Scientific Committee 💡 Elisa Oricchio, Director of the Swiss Institute of Experimental Cancer Research at EPFL 💡 Bruno Quesnel, Directeur du Pôle recherche et innovation at Institut national du cancer See their reflections below ⤵️

Our series of global think tanks is now underway! 🌏 These think tanks are a key part of our challenge consultation process, and mark the first step in our 2-year cycle. Their purpose is to engage the research community and stimulate debate on topics for our next set of #CancerGrandChallenges (launching in March 2025). As they take place, we'll be sharing insights from some of the leading researchers and clinicians involved. Stay tuned 💬 Read about our process around setting challenges and awarding funding 👉 https://bit.ly/4et1dtH