A CHARITY set up in memory of a Yorkshire woman who died from asbestos-related cancer has pledged more than £130,000 to fund innovative new research into the disease.
It is the first major scientific award from the
June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund and will investigate the feasibility of using the patient's own immune system to fight
the cells that cause the cancer.
June Hancock was one of many, inclu
ding her mother, who contracted the killer lung cancer as a result of the activities of the JW Roberts asbestos factory in Armley, Leeds.
She died in June 1997, shortly after becoming the first mesothelioma victim to win a compensation bid against the owners.
Now, the British Lung Foundation's Scientific Committee on behalf of the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund, has awarded £139,000 to fund three years' research into this novel approach to cancer therapy, which will be carried out by Dr Zsuzsanna Tabi at the Velindre Hospital, Cardiff University.
June Hancock's daughter Kimberley said of the award: "This is a proud day for everyone involved with the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund. We are so delighted – research into mesothelioma is desperately needed if we are to ever eradicate this extremely cruel and painful disease.
"My wonderful mum paved the way for justice – and now this research award, in her name and in her loving memory, paves the way for a cure."
A single fibre of asbestos can be enough to cause the cancer, which can take more than 50 years to show itself and usually kills within a year of diagnosis.
It is a rare disease which can affect not only factory workers but those working or living near buildings containing asbestos.
Conventional approaches to cancer treatment such as chemotherapy using anti-cancer drugs or radiotherapy have proved ineffective at curing the disease, and surgical procedures to try to remove the mesothelioma tumour are only suitable for a small number of patients.
Current strategies for treatment aim to reduce the symptoms of the disease and maintaining patients' quality of life for as long as possible.
Dr Tabi's study will use immune cells to see if they can be activated to target
and destroy the diseased cells, in the same way that our bodies fight infections like the common cold or influenza.
She will also investigate the ways in which mesothelioma cancer cells – like other cancers – protect themselves from attack by the immune system.
Together it is hoped the information will lead to better treatments for mesothelioma, and perhaps eventually to the production of vaccines that could stop its development.
Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: "So little research goes into mesothelioma compared to other cancers, the British Lung Foundation is very proud to have made this award to Dr Tabi for her work on immunology."
Earlier this week it was revealed nearly 200,000 people would die from lung cancer because of exposure to asbestos
Professor Julian Peto, Cancer Research UK chairman of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said about 90,000 people would die from mesothelioma and a further 90,000 from asbestos-related lung cancer.
