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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.
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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. |
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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. |
