The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre has secured another high-profile status – this time in a collaboration with London’s Royal Marsden Hospital.
After an exacting process, Clatterbridge has now become part of a Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) in its partnership with The Royal Marsden, one of the most prestigious cancer centres in the world.
Achieving BRC status and the new collaboration will further enhance Clatterbridge’s ability to transform ground-breaking clinical research trials into fully-fledged treatments at our hospitals and so increasingly improve outcomes for our patients.
Being in a BRC will lead to the Trust collaborating on clinical trials, sharing best practice and mounting joint funding bids.
BRC status is the latest sought-after accreditation for The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre after it became a Clinical Research Facility (CRF) earlier this year in conjunction with two other Liverpool hospital trusts to boost delivery of early stage clinical research.
This follows on from Clatterbridge being a collaborator on the Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) with the University of Liverpool. ECMC status was awarded in 2017 and is funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research.
Medical Director Dr Sheena Khanduri said: “We are delighted that The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre now becomes a partner in a Biomedical Research Centre, in a forward-looking collaboration with The Royal Marsden.
“We will be working with our colleagues in London on many important areas of research, including immunotherapeutics, precision diagnostics and cancer evolution, advanced technologies for cure, precision therapeutics and cancer treatment effects and survivorship.
“Being in a BRC enhances our ability to lead extra and more complex clinical research trials to extend Clatterbridge’s reputation as a leading centre for cutting-edge cancer research globally. It also gives our patients even more access to pioneering research and ground-breaking therapies that will benefit them directly, improving outcomes for cancer patients right across Cheshire and Merseyside.
“I would like to thank everyone who has worked on this bid to achieve BRC status and look forward to an exciting and fruitful partnership with The Royal Marsden.”
Professor David Cunningham, Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden and Director of the NIHR BRC at The Royal Marsden and the ICR, said:
“I’m extremely pleased to welcome The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre as one of our BRC partners. I look forward to collaborating with them to develop innovative new treatments for cancer patients, and I’m thrilled that our partnership will enable more patients to have access to new therapies, advanced technologies and pioneering research that will have a direct impact on their outcomes.”
Director of Clinical Research Professor Christian Ottensmeier added: “Being designated as part of a Biomedical Research Centre is the latest success for Clatterbridge adding to our CRF and ECMC status.
“It solidifies Clatterbridge in the top tier of cancer research centres and will help to attract further funding and experts in the field to work here. Having a BRC partnership in Liverpool also enhances the research ecosystem regionally and will welcomed by our academic partners across Merseyside.
“But most of all, it will feed through to the development of new cancer treatments and ways to care for our patients, which can only improve outcomes for them in the future.”