New Phd student to be appointed at Brain Tumour UK Research Centre

A Phd student, who will research childhood tumours, will be recruited to join the team at Brain Tumour UK Neuro-Oncology Research Centre after funding for the post has been received from donors.

The three-year post, which will start in September, will be joint-funded for £77,000 over three years by The Joseph Foote Foundation, The Ethan Perkins Trust, The Patrick Trust and and Heather Cole in memory of her husband Norman. 

Dr Tracy Warr, Brain Tumour UK Reader in Neuro-Oncology, who will oversee the student’s research, says:
“The focus of the research will be to help develop new therapeutic advances to help children affected by astrocytomas, the most prevalent type of central nervous system tumours among children.”

Brain tumours are the most common form of solid cancer in children and the leading cause of cancer related deaths in children younger than 15-years of age, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Cancer Research UK statistics reveal that 400 children in the UK develop brain tumours and the majority of these are astrocytomas.

“There is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic strategies which target specific genetic abnormalities present in these tumours,” says Dr Warr.

The Phd student’ s task will be to further the team’s research into the epigenetic silencing of gene expression in paediatric astrocytoma.

The post has been made possible by donations from three charitable trusts and an individual, all involving people whose lives have all been touched by brain tumours.

The Joseph Foote Charitable Trust was formed in 2001 after Joseph Foote was diagnosed with a brain tumour aged only 2½. The cancer, after multiple surgeries and treatments, kept returning and eventually claimed his life aged just 9.

The Ethan Perkins Trust was set up in memory of 11 year old, Ethan Matthew Perkins, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in May 2008, aged 10 years old and who died a year later.

Horrified by the lack of funding for research and the prospect that it is unlikely that a cure will be found, Ethan's family and friends have set up the Trust with the objective of raising funds for research, support and awareness into childhood brain tumours.

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