Patients with head-and-neck cancers are set to benefit from a £4.5m donation to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust by businessman and philanthropist Ian Taylor. The funding will support the UK’s first clinical trial using high-energy proton therapy, which will open later this year. The Christie hospital, the first UK National Health Service centre to offer high-energy proton therapy, treated its first patient with protons in December 2018
The donation is part of £15m pledged by Taylor on behalf of The Taylor Family Foundation for UK research on proton therapy for head-and-neck cancers. It will support a team led by The Christie’s David Thomson in clinical trials, scientific research, translational science and training. The donation will also be used to establish The Taylor Family Foundation Proton Fellowship, which will support three new research fellows at The Christie.
The core costs for this first UK proton therapy trial are funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK). The Taylor Family Foundation donation will widen access to the trials by helping with travel costs for those who live a long way from Manchester and will need treatment over a seven week period.
The Foundation will also fund sample collection and analysis, immune profiling, tumour genomics, and physics and imaging studies, with the aim of developing translational science approaches to individualize future treatments. This work will be led by Catherine West from The University of Manchester.
The donation aims to improve survival rates for patients with head-and-neck cancers, reduce treatment side effects and change the way head-and-neck cancers are treated. It will also drive the first UK proton therapy trials for different head-and-neck cancers in combination with targeted drug therapies and immunotherapy.
“This phenomenal donation from The Taylor Family Foundation is incredibly generous, and will make a real difference to patients with head-and-neck cancer,” says Robert Bristow of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the CRUK Manchester Centre. “In partnership with CRUK, we aim to lead the world in establishing the clinical benefit of proton therapy in combination with novel cancer agents. This will be underpinned by exceptional biological and physical science, to help understand how we can personalize and best use proton therapy to improve survival outcomes and the long-term quality-of-life for our patients.”
Looking inside a proton therapy system
“We are delighted to be working with The Christie and CRUK to help deliver proton beam therapy treatment care for all those who can benefit from this exciting new treatment,” says Taylor. “The Taylor Family Foundation passionately believes that proton beam therapy can play an important role in curing head-and-neck cancers, as well as helping children with issues such as brain tumours. We are looking forward to a long and positive relationship with The Christie and CRUK to achieve these objectives.”
