Clatterbridge Cancer Centre researchers won £280,000 funding

Research at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre into how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people with blood cancer is to be expanded after researchers received a grant worth £280,000 from Blood Cancer UK.

Many people with blood cancer, which includes leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, have a weakened immune system due to the underlying disease or its treatment. As a result of this, they are not as good at fighting off the virus that causes COVID-19 compared with healthy people, and this has led to changes in some blood cancer treatments during the pandemic.

The new funding from Blood Cancer UK will allow the new study (UnCoVer) to be extended by finding out how the treatment of blood cancer has changed during the pandemic. It will also look at the pros and cons of different blood cancer treatments to see which of them work best in different situations.

The research will involve a network of collaborators from across the UK including not only senior blood cancer doctors but also patients and early career researchers.

Prof Pettitt, who is also the Ronald Finn Chair of Experimental Medicine at the University of Liverpool, said:

“We are delighted to receive this grant and grateful to Blood Cancer UK for awarding it. Understanding how blood cancer treatment and outcomes have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic is not only important in its own right but also provides an opportunity to study the effectiveness and side effects of new treatments that were rolled out during the pandemic.

“By shedding light on current practice and treatment outcomes, the research will highlight unmet needs and inequalities and show the difference between clinical trial data and real-world outcomes. This, in turn, will pave the way to future research that tackles these knowledge gaps and unmet needs.

“The research will also foster new collaborations, provide training opportunities for early career researchers and involve patients in the research at all levels. In doing so, it will benefit patients both directly and indirectly by helping to build a stronger and more patient-focused blood cancer research community.”

For more information please see the Clatterbridge website here.

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