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Stand Up To Cancer: How the entertainment industry is helping us fund life-saving research

by Nisharnthi Duggan | Analysis

24 October 2024

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Yinka and Kola Bokinni holding Stand Up To Cancer donation jars
Yinka and Kola Bokinni. Credit: StillsByConnor

What does a Pink Drink have to do with beating cancer? What about Alan Carr exploding a watermelon live on television? Or Taylor Swift singing ‘Bake It Off’ with Jamie Oliver?  

These are all examples from the weird and wonderful world of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)– a fundraising campaign that helps us to fund exciting new research projects into cancer.  

So, what IS SU2C?

SU2C was first established in the US in 2008 by media and entertainment leaders.   

We brought SU2C across the Atlantic to the UK in 2012 in collaboration with Channel 4 with an aim to galvanise the public in the fight against cancer.  

Our unique partnership has allowed us to reach new audiences and establish fun and creative ways to raise awareness and funds for life-saving cancer research.  

The SU2C campaign runs year-round, including public callouts, social-media challenges as well as Channel 4 specials like The Great Celebrity Bake Off for SU2C and Gogglebox for SU2C.  

But the glowing gem of the campaign is the biennial live night of television on Channel 4. The show is a mixing pot of science, comedy and chaos aiming to highlight the importance of research. 

On these shows we’ve seen Alan Carr exploding watermelons representing cancer cells to explain a potential new cancer treatment, Davina McCall examining a huge pair of fake testicles to encourage people to check themselves, Adam Hills having a live prostate exam on air, and much, much more. 

The last live show in November 2023, called the ‘SU2C takeover’, involved comedians and celebrities taking over the Francis Crick Institute in London. We saw SU2C scientist Mererid Evans speaking about her work into kinder treatments for head and neck cancer with Rhod Gilbert, Nish Kumar giving a comedic history of cancer, celebrities like Gemma Collins and Rhod Gilbert ‘roasting’ each other, and a hilarious cancer parody song from Jordan Gray.  

The next live show will be in autumn 2025 and is sure to be as fun as the last, and importantly, help to bring in even more money to fund life-saving cancer research. 

What kind of research does SU2C fund? 

SU2C funds translational research to help take discoveries from the lab and turn them into tests and treatments to benefit people affected by cancer.   

Translational research means research that is done with patients and the clinic in mind, literally translating breakthroughs from the bench to the bedside. 

What impact has the campaign had so far?

We’ve raised over £113m for the SU2C campaign that has funded 73 clinical trials and research projects, involving over 130,000 patients. SU2C research is happening across the UK with projects funded all the way from Glasgow to Belfast to Southampton.

We also fund transatlantic research —collaborations between SU2C UK and SU2C US scientists. These projects take on big challenges like setting up a Dream Team to unravel the complexities of pancreatic cancer and creating an atlas of the brain, to help doctors identify regions of the brain to avoid with radiotherapy. 

Research takes a long time, but we’ve already seen the impact of some of the work we’ve funded. 

Our impact: The Pink Drink 

If you were searching for something in a dark room, it would be very hard to find. But if someone shone a spotlight directly on what you were looking for, it would be much easier!   

This is a bit like surgeons looking for cancer cells amongst healthy cells in the brain. Surgery is a great way to remove the cancer, but it’s tricky. It can be hard for doctors to spot and remove all the cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells intact. 

Professor Colin Watts wearing a Stand Up To Cancer tshirt
Professor Colin Watts, the researcher behind 'The Pink Drink'

To combat this, Professor Colin Watts tested a drug called 5-ALA, which makes certain brain tumour cells glow fluorescent pink under UV light.   

He showed that if patients have a drink containing 5-ALA before their surgery, surgeons can shine a fluorescent light on the brain and expose the most aggressive type of cancer cells, which are crucial for the surgeon to remove. 

This drug, now known as The Pink Drink, is available across the NHS, improving survival and quality of life for people with brain tumours.  

Our impact: Bubbles to beat cancer  

Thanks to SU2C, Professor Eleanor Stride developed an unexpected way to make chemotherapy (chemo) more targeted – using microscopic bubbles!  

The microscopic bubbles
The microscopic bubbles

In the technique, Professor Stride coats the bubbles with a dose of chemo along with some specially engineered cancer-seeking ‘anchors’. Then she injects these directly into the tumour or into the blood.

The anchors cause the bubbles to stick to tumour cells, and then when an ultrasound beam is aimed at the tumour, it causes the bubbles to vibrate and release the chemo, killing the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact!  

Professor Stride’s technique has shown promise in early testing for bladder cancer and she hopes to take it further into clinical trials for other cancer types.  

Our impact: Brian’s story

We’re funding Professors Simon Bach and David Sebag-Montefiore’s STAR-TREC trial, which aims to improve treatment for rectal cancer.  

People with rectal cancer often need radical surgery, removing their rectum. And this can lead to life-long impacts like using a stoma bag. In STAR-TREC, the team are using radiotherapy or chemotherapy so that this big surgery can be avoided. The work is ongoing but is already changing lives.

Brian with his sister in Australia
Brian with his sister in Australia

Meet Brian. 

After noticing a change in his bowel habits, Brian visited his GP, where he was prescribed medication for constipation. Several weeks later, he found blood in his poo and had an emergency endoscopy. 

Results revealed a lump in Brian’s rectum and a biopsy confirmed he had cancer. 

As part of his treatment plan, Brian took part in the STAR-TREC trial. 

Brian said, “I had a course of radiotherapy as opposed to going straight to surgery and a stoma, which may or may not have been reversible.” 

Today, Brian is cancer-free and recently visited his sister in Australia, which was originally delayed due to his diagnosis.

SU2C research is saving lives and improving quality of life for people affected by cancer. 

What are we doing now? 

Every two years we fund exciting new projects through the SU2C campaign. We’ve recently funded nine incredible projects, from developing lollipops to detect mouth cancer to using lasers and robots to improve cancer surgery.  

In the words of Noel Gallagher from one of our previous SU2C live shows: “Big up the scientists, man.”  

Keep an eye out for more articles in our SU2C series to learn about these projects and other amazing SU2C science. 

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