We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to create the ‘Conquer Childhood Cancer Act’ as is currently being created in the US.”
Details of Petition:
“In the UK currently the majority of research into childhood cancers relies on charitable donations. Children in the UK deserve the right to the best treatment available. Government funds should be available to fund vital research into childhood cancer. In the US ‘The Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2007′ is a landmark piece of legislation which authorizes $150 million over a five-year period to expand support for biomedical research programs of the existing National Cancer Institute-designated multi-center national infrastructure for pediatric cancer research, establish a population-based national childhood cancer registry, enable researchers to more accurately study the incidence of childhood cancers and long-term effects of treatments, and provide funding for informational and educational services to families coping with a diagnosis of childhood cancer. We strongly believe that we should have similar legislation in the UK. Cancer is the main cause of death in children in the UK!.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The Government is determined to make the UK the best place in the world for health research, development and innovation and to invest its substantial health research budget in the best possible way. We are second only to the United States in cancer research, in which the Department of Health currently invests some £170 million per year.
Through the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) we are changing fundamentally the way cancer research is carried out in the UK. The NCRI draws together major cancer research funding organisations from Government and the charitable and private sectors. For the first time these organisations have come together in a single body to collectively map out research activities and jointly plan for the future.
The NHS Plan announced that the Department of Health would provide an additional £20million per year to establish a national cancer research network.
The National Cancer Research Network (NCNR) and National Translational Cancer Research Network (NTRAC) were established as a result. The NCRN has more than doubled the number of cancer patients in research studies. As a result, a greater percentage of cancer patients in this country, including children, are participating in research studies of new developments in cancer diagnosis, treatment and care than anywhere else in the world, including the United States.
In partnership with Cancer Research UK, we are building on the success of NTRAC to establish a series of Centres for Experimental Cancer Medicine. These Centres will fast-track scientific breakthroughs from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside. The Department is investing £17.5 million in these centres.
The United Kingdom Children’s Cancer Studies Group (UKCCSG) is one of the most successful Clinical Trials organisations in the UK. A key function of the UKCCSG is the promotion, conduct and delivery of a substantial number of clinical trials, either within the Group or in collaboration with other international organisations. These studies constitute an important part of the NCRN trials portfolio. In addition, UKCCSG provides an important focus for the development of specialised cancer care for children in parallel with the clinical trials activity, and as such is an example of good practice.
Increasingly, particularly in relation to the development of specialist clinical units commonly funded from charitable sources, entry into many studies in the UKCCSG’s portfolio has expanded to include teenage and young adults.
The Department is contributing £120,000 per year to the UKCCSG via the NCRN.
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