New funding for childhood cancer research

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The Irish Cancer Society is proud to announce that it has recently granted funding to Dr Gerard Brien, Trinity College Dublin, for research into Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer that occurs in young children and teenagers.

Gerard explains: “Cancers that affect children are relatively rare. However, Ewing sarcoma is one of the most common childhood cancers.

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

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

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“Although many children diagnosed with early stage Ewing sarcoma are cured, more than 80% of children with Stage 4 disease won’t survive their illness.

“Our inability to cure these children 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 next three years.