Name of the charity: Cancer Clinical Research Trust (CCRT)

Type of Work & Current Projects: CCRT is a charity which supports the work of a team of cancer specialists, scientists and other research professionals working towards the common goal of developing improved treatments for cancer.

There is scarcely a family in Ireland that has not been touched by this disease.  Cancer is now emerging as the leading cause of death in Ireland and most western countries.  The outlook for patients with most types of cancer has improved in recent years, and in some cases has improved very dramatically.

In the case of breast cancer, dramatic progress has been made especially in the treatment of some of the most dangerous forms of this disease.  For instance, patients whose cancer has an alteration of a gene called Her2, traditionally had an extremely poor outlook with high rates of relapse and death.  Our unit was part of an international developmental effort for improved treatments for this disease, and was involved with some of the earliest trials of the drugs Herceptin, and Lapatinib, treatments which have offered new hope to patients afflicted with this condition.

The nature of cancer research has changed dramatically in recent years.  Historically, medical doctors who tried new treatments in patients worked at some distance from the research activities of basic scientists who were trying to unravel the mysteries of the cancer cell in the lab.

More recently, the two strands of research have come together in a unified approach called “translational research”.

Our Unit has pioneered the translational approach in Ireland, and all of our research programmes now have extremely strong clinical/laboratory interconnections.

As a result, the activities which are funded have also changed.  In the early years, our Unit focussed on clinical trials in patients exclusively but now, our charity supports an integrated team to form translational science in a highly collaborative fashion.

The CCRT supports research which takes place at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Elm Park, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University.  We also have a named scholarship programme, the “Anne Burns Travelling Fellowship” which supports one of our best young scientists at any given time to undertake further research and study in the world famous cancer research labs of the University of California and Los Angeles under the tutorship of Dr. Dennis Slamon.

The CCRT is wholly dependent on the generosity of donors such as yourselves, and on behalf of our team of researchers and on behalf of our patients who benefit from your efforts, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support.

What donations could achieve for the charity: The CCRT is virtually entirely dependent on the generosity of fundraisers and donors and all donations received goes towards the research and development carried out by the trust as outlined above.

Charity Number: CHY12210