LPT to fund seven innovative studies that could transform ways children are treated

This September, The Little Princess Trust is joining others around the world to mark Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Since The Little Princess Trust was established in 2005, our primary objective has always been to provide real hair wigs, free of charge, to children and young people who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment.

In 2016, we began funding research seeking to find kinder and more effective treatments for all types of childhood cancer and so September is always an important month for us.

To begin our marking of the important month, we are delighted to announce that we have funded seven new innovative childhood cancer research projects through our New Ideas Grant scheme.

The scheme is specifically designed to support bold, innovative research in childhood cancer, focusing on early-stage projects that may struggle to find traditional funding elsewhere.

These projects aim to gather early evidence for ideas that could transform the way children with cancer are treated in the future.

These cross-cutting initiatives have the potential to benefit the entire childhood cancer research field.

In 2024, the second year of the New Ideas grant scheme, we have funded more than twice the number of projects funded in 2023.

Phil Brace, CEO at The Little Princess Trust, said: “The expansion of our New Ideas grant scheme demonstrates our commitment to advancing children's cancer research.

“It is especially exciting to see so many projects this year that take a multi-disease approach.

“These cross-cutting initiatives have the potential to benefit the entire childhood cancer research field and, we hope, improve outcomes for many more young patients.”

The Little Princess Trust funds research through a collaboration with Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG), working together to select the most impactful research projects and the best researchers.

With the latest seven projects, the LPT has funded more than £25 million of research through the CCLG Research Funding Network.

Ashley Ball-Gamble, CEO of CCLG, said: “We are immensely proud to support LPT in their research funding journey and witness their growing role as a significant funder of childhood cancer research.

“The New Ideas projects highlight the importance of LPT’s unique funding schemes, with the potential to inspire significant future research and make a real difference for children with cancer.”

The 2024 New Ideas Grants are as follows:

· Rewriting cancer cell messages to slow down tumour growth: Professor Karim Malik at the University of Bristol.

· Understanding how a new drug can selectively fight childhood cancer cells: Dr Igor Vivanco at King’s College London.

· Understanding how immune cells around the brain project childhood ependymoma tumours: Dr Elizabeth Cooper at the University of Cambridge.

· Understanding how childhood cancers spread: Dr Madhumita Dandapani at the University of Nottingham.

· Cracking the code - understanding how neuroblastoma and immunce cells join forces to improve treatment: Dr Alejandra Bruna at the Institute of Cancer Research.

· Fighting circular DNA as a new way to prevent relapse in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: Dr Joan Boyes at the University of Leeds.

· Making an 'off-the-shelf' CAR-T cell treatment for children with solid cancers: Professor John Anderson at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.