The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity is the largest charitable funder of research at the hospital, donating £66m in the past 10 years. Our recent donation will mean virtual research Hubs and Units can be established to focus on priority areas.
The funding will provide more highly specialist staff to create The Early Diagnosis and Detection Centre, the Centre for Cancer Biotherapeutics Research (cellular therapy), an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub for Imaging and a Perioperative and Surgical Research Unit. The Hub and Units will help the hospital achieve its goals in earlier diagnosis and precision treatments for better outcomes for cancer patients worldwide.
Dr Shaman Jhanji, Consultant in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, said:
“Thanks to the generosity of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s supporters, colleagues and I have set up the Perioperative and Surgical Research Unit to enhance collaboration and improve patient care. To enable this vital research, the funding is covering key staff roles, including a Research Nurse, Clinical Trial Coordinator, Data Manager and Tissue Collector, as well as a research fellowship programme.”
The Early Diagnosis and Detection Centre will bring together early detection research and expertise across multiple tumour groups and will include the recruitment of new specialist roles and clinical trials staff to maximise research in the early diagnosis setting. The Centre’s focus will be achieving earlier stage clinical diagnoses and will ultimately help to save lives.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Imaging Hub will bring together academic and clinical teams for the first time to develop AI tools and real-world translation for the benefit of cancer patients. The Hub team will enhance collaboration between the academic and clinical teams to resemble what an NHS radiology team will look like in 10 years’ time.
The Cancer Biotherapeutics Research Unit will support research in cellular therapies, immunotherapies and viral therapies. The Perioperative and Surgical Research Unit will facilitate projects to improve all phases of the patient’s surgical pathway, covering topics such as early detection, imaging, minimally invasive surgery and operative procedures, as well as perioperative medicine (care before, during and after surgery) including pain management and research into sepsis.
Professor David Cunningham, Director of Clinical Research at The Royal Marsden, said:
“The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s research funding has allowed us to carry out the most innovative research for the benefit of cancer patients across the world. Thanks to the Charity and its supporters, The Royal Marsden can operate at the forefront of pioneering new, targeted treatments that has led to practice changing therapies for cancer patients. The extra funding for the next two years will allow us to further our research in areas that could be truly transformative in improving treatments for patients.”
