Give hope. Help cope.tenovuscancercare.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1054015

Research Impact2017 | 18

Contents

1. Executive Summary 1

2. Introduction 2

3. Background 4

4. Research: The figures 5

5. Output: Publication 9

6. Output: Engagement 11

7. Impact on research 13

8. What difference did we make? 14

9. Research Advisory Group 15

10. Research Network 16

11. Partnerships and Collaborations 17

11. Appendix 18

Tenovus Cancer Care has funded world-class cancer research for over 50 years. We fund research projects that are unique and diverse, but each share a common goal; to improve the lives of people affected by cancer and prevent cancer from occurring in the first instance.

Our funded researchers are asked to report on the progress of their projects and upon completion of the research. We rely on these accounts as the primary feedback from researchers about the progress, productivity and quality of their work to share with our supporters.

We collect both quantitative and qualitative information and both types of data are important. This summary helps to convey in numbers and narrative, the variety, progress, and impact delivered by Tenovus Cancer Care research.

Our numbers

In the last 12 months, we handled 50 grant awards which led to:

£2,179,866 Invested

19 iGrants 17 PhD Studentships 10 KESS Studentships 3 RCBC 1 MPhil

37 presentations 10 events

4 conferences

3 prizes20 publications

24 oral

13 poster

7 published

3 submitted

10 in preparation

1. Executive Summary

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10 events

4 conferences

3 prizes

2. Introduction

Every year, researchers from Welsh institutions apply for funding from us. Applications range from lab based; investigating how cancers form and creating new drugs for some of the hardest to treat cancers to community projects; looking at how to improve the lives of people throughout their cancer journey.

• In the last 12 months we have monitored the activity of 50 active grant awards

• This amounts to £2,179,866 worth of research over the duration of the award.

This can be broken down into:

19 iGrantsiGrants are research projects that act as a mechanism for innovation and thinking which has the potential to change the way treatment and provision of cancer care is considered, be it by Tenovus Cancer Care or elsewhere. Research addresses all aspects of the cancer journey but with particular emphasis on applicability and implementation.

These iGrants are projects of all sizes up to a maximum of £30,000 for up to 12 months.

17 PhD StudentshipsPhD Studentships are long term projects which address the more fundamental and comprehensive challenges that cancer creates. These projects contain expertise to address these challenges independent of the remit to feed directly back into Tenovus Cancer Care service provision. That is not to say that these do not have the possibility of feeding into the services or strategic plans; however this is not their ambition nor are they bound by it.

PhD’s are usually 3 years in length and cost around £90,000

Grants

PhDStudentships

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10 Knowledge and Economy Skills Scholarship (KESS) PhD StudentshipsKESS is a major European Convergence programme led by Bangor University on behalf of the Welsh higher education sector. KESS off ers collaborative research projects (Research Masters and PhD) linked with a local company partner. KESS projects are run the same as to PhD Studentships, for 3 years, although the funding commitment from Tenovus Cancer Care is supported by European Social Funding.

3 Research Capacity Building Collaboration (RCBC)The Research Capacity Building Collaboration is a partnership between six universities in Wales that aims to increase research capacity in nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions. This type of funding allows newcomers or those wishing to update their research expertise to conduct research for one day a week over 12 months, allowing the individual to remain in post with their current employer.

1 MPhilAn MPhil is a shorter advanced research degree, often taking 1 year to complete. They are more likely to be community projects which address all aspects of the cancer journey.

During the year, 6 of the above grants completed successfully. This can be broken down into:

• 3 PhD Studentships

• 3 iGrants

This report will include information from all 50 grants that were active during the fi nancial year.

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3. Background

To make sure we fund the highest quality projects, we are a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), a national organisation of leading medical and health research charities.

AMRC membership is the hallmark of quality research funding. Membership requires us to adhere to the principle of robust, independent and transparent peer review when awarding grant funding. We were awarded ‘Best practice in medical and health research peer review’ following our fi ve-yearly audit in 2015.

Below is our 4 step process to funding research:

Apply We open calls for funding annually and invite researchers from Welsh institutions to submit applications to us.

Review Expert peer reviewers from around the world volunteer their time to advise and score all our research applications.

Recommend The peer reviews are read by one of our voluntary advisory committees who help us make decisions about which research grant applications to fund.

Fund The relevant advisory committee recommendations are passed to Tenovus Cancer Care’s Research and Patient Services Committee for funding approval. Applicants are informed of the funding decisions and successful applicants begin their research into improving the lives of cancer patients and their families, funded by us.

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4. Research: The fi gures

Our research process has allowed us to fund and monitor 50 active grant awards over the 2017/18 fi nancial period. The graphs below show a breakdown of these grants by location, region, type of funding, cancer type and research area.

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000 £1,147,253 Cardiff University

£469,261 Bangor University

£154,942 Royal College of Music, London

£129,949 Swansea University

£66,496 Abertawe Bro Morgannwg UHB

£58,937 Aberystwyth University

£54,869 Cwm Taf UHB

£30,000 Cardiff and Vale UHB

£26,584 Hywel Dda UHB

£16,095 Cardiff Metropolitan University

£13,500 University of Wales Trinity Saint David

£12,000 University of South Wales

23 Cardiff University

10 Bangor University

3 Abertawe Bro Morgannwg UHB

3 Aberystwyth University

3 Swansea University

2 Cwm Taf UHB

1 Cardiff and Vale UHB

1 Cardiff Metropolitan University

1 Royal College of Music, London

1 Hywel Dda UHB

1 University of South Wales

1 University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Research spend by location

Number of projects by location

5

Research spend by cancer type

Acute Myeloid Leukamia (Blood) £89,953

Pancreatic £8,496

Kidney £89,930

Gynaecological £59,991

Bladder £29,963

Uterus £119,986

Prostate £201,272

Bowel £27,767

Non-Hodgkins’s Lymphoma £10,000

Myeloma (immune system) £65,178

Melanoma (Skin) £112,410

Breast £42,612

Lung £63,111

Brain £105,000

Head and Neck £29,870

Research applicable to all cancers = £1,124,347Total research spend = £2,179,886

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19 iGrants

17 PhD

10 PhD -KESS

3 RCBC

1 MPhil

£1,260,217 South East Wales (28 Projects)

£469,261 North Wales (10 Projects)

£295,466 West Wales (11 Projects)

£154,942 England (1 Project)

Number of projects by funding type

Research spend by region

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19 iGrants

17 PhD

10 PhD -KESS

3 RCBC

1 MPhil

£1,260,217 South East Wales (28 Projects)

£469,261 North Wales (10 Projects)

£295,466 West Wales (11 Projects)

£154,942 England (1 Project)

£876,686 Cancer Control, Survivorship, and Outcomes Research (20 projects)

£638,915 Biology (8 projects)

£426,025 Treatment (8 projects)

£125,897 Early Detection, Diagnosis and Prognosis (6 projects)

£89,953 Etiology (Causes of Cancer) (1 project)

£22,410 Prevention (1 project)

Spend by research area

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5. Output: Publication

Tenovus Cancer Care funded researchers reported seven publications associated with their projects with another three publications submitted and awaiting acceptance. A further ten publications were noted to be in preparation for submission in the near future with potential journals identified.

A complete list of reported publications can be seen in the Appendix.

Three of the seven publications used the Altmetric scoring system which is discussed in more detail below:

Roberts-Dalton, H., Cocks, A., Falcon-Perez, J., Sayers, E., Webber, J., Watson, P., Clayton, A. and Jones, A. (2017). Fluorescence labelling of extracellular vesicles using a novel thiol-based strategy for quantitative analysis of cellular delivery and intracellular traffic. Nanoscale, [online] 9(36), pp.13693-13706.

Available at: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2017/NR/C7NR04128D#!divAbstract.

Altmetric Score: 45Journal Impact Factor: 7.367

To date Altmetric has tracked 2,523 research outputs from this journal. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.

The second publication scored on Altmetric was;

Codd, A., Kanaseki, T., Torigo, T. and Tabi, Z. (2017). Cancer stem cells as targets for immunotherapy. Immunology, [online] 153(3), pp.304-314.

Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imm.12866/abstract.

Altmetric Score: 20Journal Impact Factor: 3.701

This research output was also compared to 35 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. It scored higher than 97% of its contemporaries.

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The third publication tracked by Altmetric was;

Jones, N., Cronin, J., Dolton, G., Panetti, S., Schauenburg, A., Galloway, S., Sewell, A., Cole, D., Thornton, C. and Francis, N. (2017). Metabolic Adaptation of Human CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cells to T-Cell Receptor-Mediated Stimulation. Frontiers in Immunology, [online] 8.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.01516.

Altmetric Score: 9Journal Impact Factor: 6.429

The journal ‘Frontiers in Immunology’ where this publication was accepted, is the 5th most cited journal in immunology.

One of the seven publications reported refers to Dr Fancourt’s study: ‘The effect of choir singing on psychological and immune responses of cancer patients, carers and staff’. Dr Fancourt’s study was featured in ‘Psychologies’ magazine, which has a readership of 354,000 with 75% of their audience actively looking for ways to improve their health and wellbeing.

We will continue to request publication information from our funded researchers in order to monitor the impact of the research and share with our supporters.

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6. Output: Engagement

Tenovus Cancer care encourages the engagement of all funded researchers within the scientific and lay community.

Overall, 54 examples of engagement activities were reported. These activities have been broken down into the following categories:

Oral presentation – this would cover any oral presentations at national and international conferences, talks, seminars, or group meetings.

Poster presentation – this would cover any accepted posters which were displayed at a conference.

Scientific meeting or conference – this would cover the remaining national and international conferences, talks, seminars and group meetings where no type of presentation; oral or poster would be made.

Events – Events can include any publicly attended activity which the student or grant holder was involved in.

Prizes – this would include any reported awarded prizes for an achievement by a student or grant holder.

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5

10

15

20

25

24

1310

4 3Oral

PresentationPoster

PresentationEvents Scientific

Meeting or conference attendance

Prizes

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To give some perspective, the oral presentations covered a variety of areas, including: Cardiff, Birmingham, Swansea, Carmarthen, Wrexham, Hull, Keele, London, Switzerland and Iceland.

The poster presentations also had a wide reach at conferences located in Spain, Cyprus, and Germany.

Other scientific meetings and conferences attended included The 36th Sapporo International Cancer Symposium in Japan, highlighting the international reach of Tenovus Cancer Care funded research.

The events recorded included the “Tackling Cancer Together” event in November 2017 which was organised by the Wales Cancer Partnership, of which Tenovus Cancer Care is a member. This event took place in Cardiff and brought together 23 different organisations with over 100 volunteers, researchers, staff from charitable organisations, and healthcare providers to highlight and raise awareness of the excellent cancer research, services and care in Wales.

Another event which had a lot of involvement from Tenovus Cancer Care funded researchers was the Pint of Science in Cardiff. Pint of Science is a non-profit organisation that brings scientists to a local pub to discuss their latest research and findings. It was hosted in Cardiff for the first time in 2017 and allowed a number of our researchers to talk to the public about their work.

Three PhD students were awarded prizes for their achievements detailed below;

Alex Cocks won 1st prize for his talk to an international audience at the UK Extracellular Vesicle Conference at the University of Birmingham.

Alex Baker won the prize for best oral presentation at the South West Structural Biology Consortium Annual Meeting in Cardiff.

Finally, Silvia Ziliotto won 2nd prize for her poster presentation: “Understanding how targeting zinc signalling prevents cell division in cancer” at the International Society of Zinc Biology in Cyprus.

We will continue to encourage the engagement activities of researchers in the community setting to increase awareness of Tenovus Cancer Care funded research.

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7. Impact on research

All completed funded research projects are asked to describe the impact of their research findings. This can include the impact for people affected by cancer, specifics regarding fundamental knowledge in cancer research such as the development of new scientific knowledge, methods or research cited in public policy documents.

Below are some examples to highlight the impact of research funded by Tenovus Cancer Care.

One completed PhD Studentship investigated DNA repair molecules in our cells, which can interfere with the effectiveness of a commonly used chemotherapy drug called gemcitabine. There is a pressing clinical need for a greater understanding of gemcitabine resistance and there are few studies regarding the role of DNA repair pathways in this process. The results from the study raise the possibility that the DNA repair factor called ERCC1 may be able to be used as a biomarker to better predict who will benefit gemcitabine treatment, leading to more personalised treatments and better patient outcomes.

Another PhD Studentship investigated how reactive oxygen species (ROS; reactive molecules that contain oxygen) can promote leukaemia development and whether it involves pathways perturbing sugar (glucose) metabolism. From this study, the team have now established a mechanism that explains how ROS can support the growth of blood cancer cells. This has opened up the possibility of targeting this pathway (the protein PFKFB3) to see if it’s possible to selectively kill blood cancer cells over normal cells.

A PhD studentship which investigated the diagnostic journeys in myeloma has recommended that GP’s lower the threshold for examining patients and to suspect myeloma in patients presenting with fatigue or pain in muscles, joints or bones. If acted upon, patients will have the possibility of their myeloma suspected and investigated earlier in primary care, to prompt optimal referral to a haematologist. This could potentially lead to less disease burden and better survival rates.

An iGrant aimed at the identification and validation of low-cost and high-throughput biomarkers for lung cancer status, stage and type will allow for a better harness in “big biology” approaches to the diagnosis of lung cancer and compare it to current practices. This project will ultimately result in better screening and diagnostic tools for patients with suspected lung cancer. This could result in improved diagnostic pathway for approximately 250 patients in Hywel Dda UHB per year and approximately 4000 patients per year in Wales. By improving diagnostic pathways, the speed at which patients receive treatment could increase which may improve patient outcomes, such as survival.

Another iGrant holder investigating the factors associated with late presentation in patients with lung cancer is using the information gained from the iGrant to develop a targeted campaign to increase awareness of lung cancer symptoms. The campaign may help future potential lung cancer patients with to seek medical advice sooner. Policy initiatives, such as prompt chest x-rays for members of high risk groups who may not understand the potential significance of their new chest symptoms, especially if they have a history of respiratory conditions or have smoked for some time, can be also informed by the findings.

It is important that Tenovus Cancer Care funded research demonstrates an impact to meet our charitable aim of conducting and funding research to improve cancer outcomes and experiences.

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8. What difference did we make?

These written accounts by our funded researchers highlight what difference Tenovus Cancer Care made to their research:

I am very grateful for Tenovus Cancer Care funding as it has given me the opportunity to develop as a scientist and make a contribution to cancer

research through my PhD studies. Generous funding allowed me to travel to conferences and visit other universities to learn advanced techniques. As a result of completing my PhD I have started post-doctoral job as a research scientist, still in cancer research and hope to continue making a valuable contribution to the fi eld. The communications training we received was put to good use and I enjoyed participating in the Bangor Science festival and the Admiral After Hours Does Cancer Research event.

Helena Robinson

Dr Alex Tonks

We are tremendously grateful to Tenovus Cancer Care, patients and families, public and the tireless work of all volunteers that continually support this great

charity. Without patients and their selfl essness to donate samples, the charitable funds along with the relentless pursuit of new knowledge by the early career scientists [that Tenovus Cancer Care fund], we would not be making the progress we are today towards beating cancer.

The scientifi c research support from Tenovus Cancer Care is helping us beat blood cancer. Investment into basic science research has helped our team discover that blood cancer cells, specifi cally acute myeloid leukaemia cells consume sugar and metabolise it in diff erent ways to support their long-term growth. With the development of new drugs that target this process we will able to improve the lives of patients suff ering with the diff icult to treat disease and other cancers.

As we are primarily based on a small university in mid-Wales, we heavily depend on our collaborative work in order to advance our vision of developing tools for early diagnosis of lung

cancer and other pulmonary diseases. As a result, receiving this Tenovus iGrant allowed our research team to establish several collaboration links which were unlikely to be established at the beginning of the project. These links with other academic institutes, as well as with clinical entities, will certainly be instrumental for the development of new and more advanced research ideas. Furthermore, they will help us to successfully apply to funding to further validate and develop the scientifi c outcomes of the project which now has ended.

Dr Keir Lewis

The support from Tenovus meant that we could engage with public and patients to ensure that we were asking the right questions. This ensured that our study was relevant to patients and had the

potential to make a diff erence. Working with Tenovus has been a great experience. Without their support the study would not have been conducted on an all Wales basis and so patients would not have had the opportunity to contribute. Their support has now led to a larger trial and we hope we are one step closer to improving early diagnosis rates in Wales.

Dr Gareth Collier

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9. Research Advisory Group

Tenovus Cancer Care recognises that in order to make sure the research we fund meets the needs of people living with cancer and its effects on a daily basis, we need to listen to the views of people affected by cancer in our communities.

To achieve this, we brought together a group of people affected by cancer with a variety of experience into our iGrant decision-making process, known as the Research Advisory Group (RAG).

Their aim is to be the “voice of the people” to improve the way community research funded by Tenovus Cancer Care is prioritised, selected, undertaken, disseminated and used. To make sure this happens, they are involved in every stage of our iGrant process, recommending which projects should receive Tenovus Cancer Care iGrant funding.

Barbara, one of our RAG members, told us what being a part of the group meant to her:

I would like to thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to serve on this very special group. You are

doing marvellous work to help uncover advances in therapies to help so many areas of cancer. As a patient I am thankful for those advances made thus far by people like yourselves who allocate the essential funding needed, and the marvellous scientists who carry out the work.

Barbara

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10. Research Network

We’re committed to putting the needs of people affected by cancer at the heart of everything we do. That’s why we conduct and support research which involves patients, carers and healthcare professionals.

Our Research Network are emailed quarterly with opportunities to be involved in Tenovus Cancer Care funded or supported research. This could include:

Filling in a survey

Taking part in a focus group

Being interviewed by either phone or face-to-face

Checking documents to make sure they make sense to people who are in a similar situation.

The research network currently has 228 members. Over the past 12 months we offered 11 different opportunities to the members of the research network.

Some of these included the opportunity to complete a survey for the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) on the future of research relevant to Living With and Beyond Cancer (Aug 2017).

Another was a direct recruitment call for a funded iGrant for patients with physical disability and cancer diagnosis to discuss their experiences to ultimately improve patient care (November 2017 & March 2018).

The next steps are to increase the number of members of the research network, specifically encouraging people who have been affected by cancer to join and to continue to offer a variety of opportunities and share upcoming research events and news.

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11. Partnerships and collaborations

We wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge all of the partners and collaborators we work with to ensure only the highest quality research is funded and later disseminated to the wider cancer community.

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12. Appendix

1. Codd, A., Kanaseki, T., Torigo, T. and Tabi, Z. (2017). Cancer stem cells as targets for immunotherapy. Immunology, 153(3), pp.304-314.

2. Fancourt, D. (2017). The health benefits of singing. Psychologies. [online] Available at: https://www.psychologies.co.uk/health-benefits-singing.

3. Hill, L., Collier, G. and Gemine, R. (2017). A patient perspective: identifying and understanding the barriers associated with the diagnostic delay of lung cancer. European Medical Journal, [online] 5(1), pp.92-98. Available at: https://www.emjreviews.com/respiratory/article/a-patient-perspective-identifying-and-understanding-the-barriers-associated-with-the-diagnostic-delay-of-lung-cancer/

4. Jones, N., Cronin, J., Dolton, G., Panetti, S., Schauenburg, A., Galloway, S., Sewell, A., Cole, D., Thornton, C. and Francis, N. (2017). Metabolic Adaptation of Human CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cells to T-Cell Receptor-Mediated Stimulation. Frontiers in Immunology, 8.

5. Nafees Din, Andrei Stanciu, Ruth Lewis, Richard Neal, Eila Watson, Clare Wilkinson. Patient perspectives and quality of life issues whilst undergoing intermittent or continuous androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer: a mixed methods systematic review. PROSPERO 2016 CRD42016046503 Available from: http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?ID=CRD42016046503

6. Roberts-Dalton, H., Cocks, A., Falcon-Perez, J., Sayers, E., Webber, J., Watson, P., Clayton, A. and Jones, A. (2017). Fluorescence labelling of extracellular vesicles using a novel thiol-based strategy for quantitative analysis of cellular delivery and intracellular traffic. Nanoscale, 9(36), pp.13693-13706. Ziliotto, S., Ogle, O. and Taylor, K. (2018). Targetting Zinc Signalling to Prevent Cancer. In: A. Sigel, H. Sigel, E. Freisinger and R. Sigel, ed., Metallo-Drugs: Development and Action of Anticancer Agents, 18th ed. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter.

Publications - Submitted (Awaiting publication)

1. Galloway, S. et al. Combinatorial Peptide Library-Derived Altered Peptide Ligands are Substantially Superior at Activating and Priming Cancer Specific T-cells. Invited submission at Frontiers in Immunology.

2. Miles J.J., M.P. Tan, G. Dolton, E.S. J. Edwards, B. Laugel, M. Clement, J. Ekeruche-Makinde, K. Ladell, K.K. Matthews, T.S. Watkins, Y. Wong, H.s. Lee, R.J. Clark, J.M. Pentier, S. Galloway, M. Attaf, A. Lissina, A. Ager, A. Gallimore, P.J. Rizkallah, S. Gras, J. Rossjohn, S.R. Burrows, D.K. Cole, D.A. Price and A.K. Sewell (2017) Peptide Mimic for Influenza Vaccination Using Non-natural Combinatorial Chemistry. Journal of Clinical Investigation.

3. Hoang-Minh LB, Siebzehnrubl FA, Yang C, Dajac K, Andrews N, Schmoll M, Amin K, Vuong A, Huang J, Sayour EJ, Jimenez-Pascual A, Garrett TT, Mitchell DA, Sarkisian MR, Reynolds BA, Deleyrolle LP. Infiltrative and drug-resistant slow-cycling cells support metabolic heterogenetiy and adaptability in glioblastoma.

Publications

7.

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diolch!

thanks!

Tenovus Cancer CareGleider House, Ty Glas Rd, Cardiff CF14 5BD029 2076 8850info@tenovuscancercare.org.uk Registered Charity No. 1054015