St. Vincents
St. Vincent's University Hospital
Professor John Crown MB, BSc, FRCPI, MBA comments
Every Cent raised by the activities of Tri-To-Beat-Cancer, is donated directly to the Cancer Research Unit, St Vincents University Hospital to provide urgently needed funds for cancer research and treatment. It is estimated that cancer will be the leading cause of death in Ireland within the next ten years. Major advance have been made in both the understanding of the causes and biology of cancer, but most importantly also in the area of new treatments. The twin lines of research are clinical research, which seeks to unravel the mysteries of the cancer cell.
Historically, Ireland has had a limited role in cancer research. In particular, clinical research in this country was very poorly developed. Thankfully the situation has changed somewhat in recent years. At present, St. Vincent's University Hospital has developed a world-wide reputation as a site for important and influential clinical cancer reserach. In additon , over the last year, we have developed a number of biological research programmes, which are focusing of drug resistance mechanisms.
This type of research is very expensive and again clinical research has traditionally been very poorly funded from statutory sources. Our unit in St. Vincent's University Hospital, which has grown over the last seven years from having one part-time researcher, to haveing 18 full-time research staff, which obviously requires substantial amounts of ongoing funding to ensure its success.
The principle focus of our research has involved new treatments for breast cancer as this hospital has a major leadership role in five large international studies which are evaluating new forms of cancer treatment.
We are also looking at novel strategies for delivering more intensive chemotherapy. This requires sophisticated support from the patient as higher intensity chemotherapy produces more substantial side effects. We have a world leadership role in what is called stem cell supported high dose chemotherapy for breast and ovarian cancer. This treatment involves the removal of cells from the patient's body by a process called leukophoresis. These cells are then frozen away and stored, to be used subsequently as a "rescue". Research into this type of high dose therapy is particularly crucial at the moment. Older forms of high dose therapy, in which the treatment was only given once, have been shown to produce high rates of response in patients with advanced cancer, but have not yet been documented to improve survival. The strategy which is being pursued by colleagues around the world under the leadership of St. Vincent's Hospital involves the application of multiple cycles of this treatment for patients with breast cancer.
Any support which you can provide for these activities would be very appreciated.
