Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: How we’ve been tackling children’s and young people’s cancers

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a chance for people and organisations across the world to come together and put children’s and young people’s cancers in the spotlight. 

At Cancer Research UK, like many of the other charities that go gold in September, children’s and young people’s cancers are a year-round concern. So, for us, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is also a chance to see how far we’ve come and consider where we’re going. Over the past 50 years, our research has played a part in saving the lives of more than 32,000 children and young people in the UK. And as they’ve grown up, we’ve kept working. Step by step, we’re building on our past successes and laying the foundation for future progress.

Read on for some of the biggest and most exciting projects we’ve covered over the past year. 

1. We discovered a link between the gut microbiome and childhood leukaemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common type of leukaemia diagnosed in children.  

It’s typically treated with chemotherapy, a powerful but often challenging treatment that can leave young cancer patients with long-term side effects.  

In 2023, a team of our researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research in London made a new finding that could prevent children from developing ALL, avoiding the need for treatment altogether.  

This discovery centres around the microbiome – the community of bacteria, fungi and viruses that live inside our bodies, mostly in the gut.  

By reviewing past studies into ALL, the team found that the microbiomes of children with the disease contained a smaller range of microorganisms.  

Since publishing their paper, they’ve begun working to see if the same holds true in lab tests. If their findings are confirmed, they could pave the way for scientists to create novel treatments for children with a high risk of developing ALL.  

• We spoke to the lead researcher to find out more about the link between the microbiome and leukaemia.

2. We found a way to give the right medulloblastoma diagnosis in minutes, not weeks

Waiting for test results can be a long and agonising process.  

Parents and children affected by cancer often experience mental and emotional stress during this period of uncertainty.  

Delaying treatment can also give cancer time to grow and potentially spread to other parts of the body.   

It usually takes weeks to diagnose the four sub-types of medulloblastoma, the second most common brain tumour in children. Identifying the sub-type is important, as each type responds slightly differently to treatment and influences the specific plan of care prescribed to a patient.  

In the future, the correct sub-type could be recognised in as little as 10 minutes, thanks to research conducted by a team funded by Children with Cancer UK and Cancer Research UK.  

This new technique utilises MRI scans and eliminates the need for diagnostic surgery, making the identification process quicker and less invasive.  

• Learn more about this technique and one boy’s experience of medulloblastoma here.

3. We’re on the cusp of finding less toxic treatments for children and young people with solid tumours 

Cancer Grand Challenges, a global funding initiative we co-founded with the National Cancer Institute in the US, empowers world-class, interdisciplinary teams to tackle some of cancer’s toughest challenges.  

This year, teams KOODAC and PROTECT were each awarded up to £20m to develop targeted treatments for children and young people with solid tumours.  

Although targeted therapies exist for adults with certain solid tumours, we’re yet to see them make as much of an impact for children and young people affected by cancer. That’s largely because solid tumours in this age group are often driven by genetic changes that have historically been categorised as ‘undruggable’.  

That is, until now.  

Armed with a new way of ‘degrading’ cancer-driving genes, teams KOODAC and PROTECT are creating treatments that are tailored to the specific features of children’s and young people’s cancers. Their work holds the potential to transform care for children and young people by using less toxic therapies that better protect healthy cells and reduce the risk of long-term side effects.

• KOODAC’s journey started with one young girl’s big idea, as you can discover in our in-depth feature on the team.
• You can read more about PROTECT, KOODAC and all the new Cancer Grand Challenges teams in our announcement article.

4. We’re using data to understand Burkitt lymphoma and predict the risk of relapse 

Sporadic Burkitt lymphoma is a type of blood cancer and the most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma in children and young people.  

Many children and young people diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma survive their cancer, but the therapies we currently have are acutely toxic, and there are very few treatment options should the cancer return.  

That’s why we chose Simon Bomken, who runs the Lymphoma Research Group at Newcastle University, to receive one of eight new Data for Children’s and Young People’s Cancer pilot awards.

Over the next two years, Simon will be using data to study gene activity in Burkitt lymphoma compared to healthy cells. He plans to use this information to categorise the cancer into subgroups in order to predict which patients are likely to relapse after their initial treatment.

This could allow doctors to prescribe treatment according to a patient’s level of risk. Those with a low-risk type of Burkitt lymphoma may only need a low dose of treatment, improving their quality of life both during and after care.

The next step will be to uncover why some cancers do relapse. With a better understanding of Burkitt lymphoma, Simon hopes to lay the groundwork for the development of novel treatments, offering new hope to children and young people whose cancers come back.

• The Cancer News research team put together a detailed guide to the new Data for Children’s and Young People’s Cancer pilot awards.