It has been a pleasure to act in my role as Deputy Chair of CBTDDC over the past two years, not least due to the extraordinary scientific researchers and medical experts who form our 18-member strong international steering committee.
I am proud to have witnessed the global growth of our website membership and followers on Twitter, which tells us that the brain tumour research community is on board with the message of how important it is to consider how cancer drugs may get into the brain. I am equally proud with how our patients, family members and carers, have supported the goals of CBTDDC, even giving a talk at our last workshop in London, to share their difficult life-changing experiences.
CBTDDC has hugely benefitted my own research team by helping to initiate a collaboration with researchers at Johns Hopkins University (USA) who are world-leaders in the field of drug delivery. The collaboration led to grant funding being awarded and a scientific paper which has shown a long-term survival benefit to rats with brain tumours, treated with a new method of drug delivery.
Despite many malignant childhood brain cancers remaining difficult to treat, I am optimistic for significant advances in our understanding of the underlying biology and in the development of innovative ways to deliver more effective doses of new drugs into the brain. One reason which has been evident in recent years, is the calibre of young scientists from varying fields of research (e.g. physics, electronic engineering, machine learning), being motivated and incentivised to apply their expertise to childhood brain cancers. Complex scientific problems yet to be solved always attract early career researchers who relish the challenge.
I am delighted that CBTDDC has received a further 3 years of funding from Children with Cancer UK and look forward to the role we will now play in continuing to raise awareness of the challenges of drug delivery and in helping to foster new international collaborations.