The Mail on Sunday has learned that the nation's top cancer charity is closing down research facilities geared to providing patients with potentially life-saving medications.
Eight clinical trial facilities that provide experimental treatment to cancer patients around the nation are funded by Cancer Research UK, but sources allege the organization is considering closing up to half of them.
The decision, according to cancer specialists, would significantly restrict the number of patients who can get these last-resort medicines, which are provided when regular treatment options available through the NHS are ineffective.
The bulk of studies in the UK cannot take place without the Cancer Research UK clinical trial units, according to a consultant oncologist who spoke on the record on the condition of anonymity. The number of studies that NHS hospitals may conduct will be considerably impacted by closing these units, and the number of patients receiving these treatments would be drastically decreased.
Since the Covid pandemic broke out, the charity's finances have suffered; its yearly income dropped by £90 million, from £672 million in 2019 to £582 million in 2018.
Despite this, it declared last month that it will contribute to a $1 billion joint commitment to the UK's top biomedical research facility, the Francis Crick Institute in London. Focusing on sponsoring early-stage research rather than medication trials is an element of the charity's larger business plan.
The Francis Crick Institute's Principle Group Leader and Chief Clinician for Cancer Research UK, Professor Charles Swanton, also occupies a top position there.
Medical observers criticized the choice to give funds to the London-based center priority over other local research facilities when the news was first reported.
Because of Prof. Swanton's connections to both Cancer Research UK and The Francis Crick Institute, the cancer specialist told The Mail on Sunday that colleagues had also questioned the role he had played in the funding decision.
The expert stated, "There is a very significant question of a conflict of interest here." If trial units are closed, many colleagues would lose their employment, but Prof. Swanton's lab benefits from this financing.
Conflicts of interest are not present, according to Cancer Research UK.
Due to the effects of Covid, oncologists report increasing difficulty in organizing pharmacological trials for life-saving treatments. They claim that in order to save costs, government officials have given them the go-ahead to stop studying important medications.
In the UK, there are over three million individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer, and there are about 375,000 new cases each year. Each year, about 25,000 people join clinical treatment trials.
Although doctors can invite eligible patients to participate, NHS Trusts typically lack the personnel and funding necessary to carry out these studies independently.
Because of this, every cancer medication research conducted in the NHS almost invariably includes involvement from Cancer Research UK clinical trial centers. The facilities in England, Scotland, and Wales provide statisticians to analyze the data as well as cancer specialists to plan and carry out the study.
The University of Birmingham unit is home to experts in trials involving children, while the Centre for Trials Research at Cardiff University specializes in blood cancer.
Directors of the clinical trial units were informed earlier this year that they must submit an application to get money as a part of a new, more efficient "core network."
Those whose applications are rejected will have their units shut down. When we contacted Cancer Research UK, it could not refute rumors that up to four facilities would be shut down.
Doctors argue that the sector's decline will only make patients' current issues worse.
In 2020, the Covid pandemic started, and all clinical studies were put on hold.
Experts claim that there are still issues restarting these investigations more than two years later.
The Institute of Cancer Research clinical oncologist Professor Nick James says: "This is a huge problem that isn't going away." It results in thousands of patients not receiving medications that could lengthen their lives.
Constance Johncock, 32, of Kent, who has advanced breast cancer, is one patient who is eager to enroll in a cancer trial. Eight different therapies, including two clinical trials, have been administered to the student nurse.
Her cancer expanded to her liver after her temporary treatment suspension at the start of the Covid epidemic.
Constance is nearing the end of her options for therapeutic therapy since the illness has already spread to her bones and lung. It doesn't seem like there are many trials out there right now, she claims.
"So many individuals like me are diagnosed with advanced breast cancer every year, yet it feels like access to these medications is regressing."
Dr. Iain Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, stated: "None of our ongoing clinical studies have had funding withheld due to the pandemic's financial challenges or our support for the Crick."
'Our Trustee Board decided to sponsor the Crick Institute after it received the highest possible recommendation from an impartial panel of international experts. There were no conversations or choices about the Crick's financing arrangement that Professor Charles Swanton, who maintains a lab there, was a part of.
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