Towergate supporting Cancer Research UK to beat cancer

 

Cancer Research Logo  Towergate formed a partnership with Cancer Research UK, (CRUK) in January 2008. 

 

Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. CRUK are funding the work of more than 4,500 scientists, doctors and nurses throughout the UK who are committed to improving our understanding of cancer and investigating how best to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease.
 
One in three of us will get cancer at some point in our lives. Most of us know someone who has had cancer and has perhaps had the support of a local hospice. This disease has a major impact on everyone connected with it - the people with cancer, their friends and their family. Together, we can do something about it.
 
CRUK’s work saves lives. Our vision is 'together, we will beat cancer'. Seven out of ten children now survive childhood cancers thanks to research. But that still leaves three out of ten children needing our help. The work of CRUK is funded almost entirely by the general public with just over half of the fundraising total made up from individual donations of £50 or less (excluding donations made by people leaving money through their Will).

 

The project Towergate is supporting

 

Towergate Charitable Foundation is providing significant funding towards a team of world-class scientists based in Oxford headed up by Professor Adrian Harris. Between Jan 2008 and March 2010, more than £362,000 has been donated by the Foundation.

 

Professor Adrian Harris and his team are carrying out groundbreaking work at the University of Oxford. Some of their recent discoveries could help doctors tailor treatment to suit an individual’s cancer, so that in the future people get the most effective therapy for their disease.

 

This includes looking at ways to block tumours from hijacking the blood supply which can then grow and spread round the body. Most cancer deaths are caused by tumours that spread. This process - known as metastasis - is what makes cancer so difficult to treat. Professor Harris’s findings may lead to new drugs that prevent tumours from forming their own blood supply. This would starve cancer of the oxygen and nutrients it needs to survive, and is one of the best chances we have of stopping the growth and spread of many types of cancer.

 

Professor Harris is a highly respected figure in the realm of cancer research, and his work has been funded by Cancer Research UK for many years.  His team publish their research in a number of scientific journals, sharing it with scientists and doctors all over the world. Towergate’s support is enabling Cancer Research UK to carry out research that will have a real impact on the lives of cancer patients both in the UK and globally.

 

Recent Progress

 

Over the past year, Professor Harris’s team have been making excellent progress. For example, they successfully carried out early testing in a small number of patients for a potential new drug called ATN-224, which affects the formation of blood vessels in tumours. And with encouraging results, they are now planning to move the drug into the next stage of development.

 

They have also been studying a molecule called Delta-like 4 (DLL4), which is known to be overactive in the blood vessels that grow within tumours. The researchers have discovered that DLL4 can act to drive angiogenesis in brain and prostate cancer. Professor Harris and his team are now keen to discover whether developing drugs that block DLL4 will result in more effective cancer treatments in the future.

 

Cancer Research UK thanks Team Towergate - Company, Colleagues and Clients for supporting their vision that together, we will beat cancer.

 

Professor Harris Professor Harris is the Cancer Research UK Professor of Clinical Oncology in the University of Oxford. He is Director of the Cancer Research UK Molecular Oncology Laboratories at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.
tumour (stained blue) This picture shows a tumour (stained blue) that has started to develop its own blood supply (the brown vessels, seen most clearly on the right). As well as providing oxygen and nutrients for the tumour to grow, the blood supply also provides a route for break-away cancer cells to spread to other parts of the body.

 

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