Development of Precision Immunotherapies in Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of Precision Immunotherapies in Cancer
IRAS ID
358126
Contact name
Alan Parker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Traditional cancer treatments often cause debilitating side effects. Novel treatments are being developed to target cancer more specifically, to avoid causing unnecessary side effects and improve patient outcomes. Furthermore, a new class of treatments, called immunotherapies, are designed to engage the cancer-fighting activity of the patient’s immune system. Our team is working on developing new treatments in both of these categories.
This study is focussed on the development of new treatments for cancer, using viruses. These viruses have been modified so that they are harmless to healthy tissue but specifically infect and damage cancer cells. We use various modifications to ensure that these viruses specifically infect cancer cells. We are also testing a suite of modifications that we predict will improve the ability of these viruses to kill cancer cells, or to encourage the immune system to destroy the cancer cells. This study will examine which of these modifications make the viruses more effective as cancer treatments.
In order to assess the effect of these potential treatment on the immune system, we must perform laboratory tests using components of the immune system extracted from human blood. Hence, we are seeking ethical approval to use healthy volunteer blood in our study. These tests are designed to measure how different treatments affect cancer cells and immune cells, and the interaction between those cells.
We will recruit volunteers from among healthy adults working within Cardiff Univesity. We will collect blood samples from those volunteers, for use in a range of laboratory tests. We will also procure healthy donor blood samples from a national biobank (the Welsh Blood Service).
The study will be conducted at Cardiff University, with certain processes outsourced to Welsh Blood Service. The study will last for 5 years.
Ultimately, this study will inform the development of more effective cancer treatments.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/PR/0999
Date of REC Opinion
11 Aug 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion