£45 million for brain cancer research

The Department of Health and Social Care and Cancer Research UK have announced £45 million in funding for brain tumour research in the UK.

Approximately 11,400 people in the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour every year, with just 14 per cent of people surviving their disease for 10 or more years.

The funding is to be spilt, with £20 million invested through the National Institute for Health Research over the next five years and £25 million to be invested by Cancer Research UK for research into brain tumours over the same time period. The charity’s funding will support the Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, based at the University of Cambridge, and the Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “While survival rates for most cancers are at record levels, the prognosis for people with brain tumours has scarcely improved in over a generation. I am grateful to Baroness Jowell and other MPs who have campaigned with great dignity and courage to raise awareness of this issue. Our ambition is to deliver a big uplift in the funding of brain cancer research, while galvanising the clinical and scientific communities to explore new avenues for diagnosis and treatment in the future. It is a chance to create a genuine step change in survival rates for one of the deadliest forms of cancer.”

Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK chief executive, added: “Brain tumours remain a huge challenge, with survival barely improving over the last 30 years. Since we laid out our plans to tackle this challenge in 2014, Cancer Research UK has already substantially increased its funding into brain tumours and attracted some of the world’s leading experts to the UK. This new funding will mean that we can accelerate these efforts further, by developing a critical mass of expertise in key areas and supporting work along the entire research pipeline to improve survival for children and adults with brain tumours.”