26 1GM Saturday September 5 2020 | the times
News
Hundreds of child cancer patients who
suffer relapses are to get faster, bespoke
treatment under a clinical trial.
The research, funded by Cancer
Research UK, will result in children
and young people being given rapid
tests to find the genetic code of their
tumours.
This will match them to treatments
in a trial called Esmart, which is testing
drug and treatment combinations that
have not previously been available.
Genetic codes of tumours are already
sequenced through the Stratified Medi-
cine Paediatrics programme, run by the
Institute of Cancer Research in
London. Sequencing results are dis-
cussed by an expert panel which
recommends the best treatment, but
options have been limited. Esmart is
designed to radically widen treatments
available and to offer fresh drugs as
soon as they are developed.
Professor Louis Chesler, who runs
the programme, said: “[It] goes beyond
traditional DNA sequencing of tu-
mours.The platform gives us valuable
information on specific features of the
tumour that could be targeted by preci-
sion medicines. It’s brilliant to have
access to the newest treatments that we
know could work for our patients. The
Bespoke treatment
trial brings hope to
child cancer victims
future is looking more optimistic for
our young patients.”
Cancer Research UK said patients
could begin treatment in the trial with-
in only a few weeks of having their
tumour sequenced, potentially vital for
those with limited treatment options.
Estimates on the numbers of child-
ren with cancer who relapse are uncer-
tain but experts believe that it is more
than 300 per year in the UK.
Esmart, a European trial, is available
at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation
Trust in London and the Royal Man-
chester Children’s Hospital. Further
sites will open in Birmingham,
Newcastle and Great Ormond Street
Hospital over the next few months.
Cancer in children and young people
is rare, and more than 80 per cent of
those diagnosed survive for five years
or more. The prognosis for those diag-
nosed with aggressive cancers such as
neuroblastomas, or where the disease
spreads or returns after the first treat-
ment, is not so good.
Dr Lynley Marshall, UK chief inves-
tigator of the Esmart trial and a con-
sultant at the Royal Marsden Hospital,
said: “We’ve spent years trying to get a
more targeted approach to children’s
cancers in place, and we’re proud to
have helped to develop Esmart and to
have it available in the UK.”Kat Lay Health Correspondent
A
student and
her beloved
pet pony are
on an epic trek
from Germany
to Scotland, so she cankeep him by her side
while she studies.
Johanna Maria, 22, an
agriculture student, is
heading to Dundee to
research barley breeding
for six months, as part of
her dissertation.
She couldn’t afford the
£2,000 flight costs for her
14-year-old Shetland pony
Hechizo so she set out
from her home in Halle,
near Leipzig, in February,
with Hechizo dragging allher belongings on a cart.
At one point she was
driven to Spain by her
father for a work
placement, but since then
the pair have walked
about 15 miles each day,
staying with strangers, or
camping in churchyards
or parks. They will havecovered 1,300 miles by
the time they reach
Dundee in October.
Ms Maria, who reached
Northumberland
yesterday, said: “I just
love it. I’m taking every
day as it comes. If I meet
someone who offers a
place to stay and we are
already tired I just stop, I
think that’s the best way
for us to just react
spontaneously to
whatever comes up.”Student and
pet pony walk
1,300 miles
on the hoof
Johanna Maria is bringing
her Shetland pony Hechizo
from her home in Germany
to Dundee for her studiesKATIELEE ARROWSMITH/SWNS