University of Manchester makes advances in cancer fight

Cancer Research U.K. invested millions to help transform personalized medicine for cancer treatment.
Cancer Research U.K. invested millions to help transform personalized medicine for cancer treatment. | File photo

The University of Manchester is part of the global struggle to tackle cancer, and has made great strides since last year’s World Cancer Day in research.

The university opened the Manchester Cancer Research Center in June that will be home to researchers from the Manchester Cancer Research Center, which is a partnership among Cancer Research U.K., the University of Manchester and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

Following this, Cancer Research U.K. invested millions to help transform personalized medicine for cancer treatment, which will help the university in its goal to become one of the top five integrated cancer centers in the world by 2020.

A big breakthrough came in the form of graphene, as studies showed that the 2D material could have potential as a treatment for cancer. This led to a clinical trial.

“This trial is the culmination of over a decade of research,” Richard Marais, director of the Cancer Research U.K. Manchester Institute and leader of its research program on panRAF inhibitors, said. “BRAF drugs can give valuable extra months of quality life to about half of melanoma patients, but sadly it is not a cure and most patients eventually develop resistance. These new drugs are engineered to get around this problem by shutting down the routes that tumors use to bypass BRAF drugs. They work very well in the laboratory and we look forward to now seeing if they also work well in patients.”