Ewing Sarcoma Research

The Irish Cancer Society is proud to announce that it has granted funding to Dr Gerard Brien, Trinity College Dublin, for research into Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer that usually occurs in young children and teenagers, but can also be diagnosed in adults.

Gerard explains: “A Ewing sarcoma diagnosis brings with it much difficulty. Patients often experience significant pain, bone fractures and joint swelling which significantly impact day-to-day life.

“Unfortunately, at present our ability to effectively treat everyone suffering with Ewing sarcoma is limited.

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“Although many people diagnosed with early stage Ewing sarcoma are cured, more than four-in-five patients with Stage 4 disease won’t survive their illness.

“Our inability to cure these patients is because we do not fully understand how Ewing sarcoma develops; nor do we have effective treatments to tackle advanced forms of the disease.

“The goal of my research project is to gain a clearer understanding of the underlying causes of Ewing sarcoma development.

“In particular, we want to understand the differences between early stage (curable) forms of the disease, and advanced tumours which are effectively incurable at present.

“We hope that the insights gained through this work will allow the development of new, more effective treatments to potentially cure Ewing sarcoma.”

With research experience in Trinity College, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, we are excited to find out what Gerard’s research findings will be over the course of his project (2018-2021).