Investigation of Immune Responses in Children with Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigation of Immune Responses in Children with Cancer
IRAS ID
264668
Contact name
Juliet Gray
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Univeristy Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Although survival for many childhood cancers has improved considerably, the outcome for some childhood cancer types is poor. Furthermore, current treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are often very toxic, particularly in young children, and long term side effects are common. Immunotherapy potentially offers a more specific and less toxic treatment. The aim of this study is to further our understanding of how the immune system recognises and responds to childhood cancers, and the effects that chemotherapy has on this.
We will plan to use tumour samples which are surplus to diagnostic or clinical requirement, and stain them for different immune cells, to assess the immune response to the tumour. This will be done within the histopathology laboratory at Southampton. Where possible, paired tumour samples from before and after chemotherapy will be studied, to assess the effects of chemotherapy on the immune cells.
The result of the immune staining will be linked to anonymised clinical data, to seek any correlation between the immune response and the stage and outcome of the disease.
It is aimed to study up to 20 tumour samples from each of the common solid childhood cancer.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EM/0246
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion