Lead investigator: Prof Paul Murray, University of Birmingham
Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Funded December 2017
Award: £111,331.97
This research project will explore how a protein known as GPNMB is involved in the development of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), one of the commonest forms of cancer in children and young adults.
Although chemotherapy is effective for many diagnosed with HL, a significant proportion (approximately 10%) of children will die of their disease. The current standard treatment for HL includes a combination of multiple chemotherapy drugs and radiotherapy. These treatments have significant immediate and long-term side effects, impacting on the quality of life of children and young people diagnosed with HL.
Studies of GPNMB have been shown that it can prevent the immune system from recognising and destroying cancer cells. We have shown that the tumours of patients with HL produce excessive amounts of the protein GPNMB, which may play an important role in how HL cells avoid detection by the body’s immune system. Therefore, by inhibiting the function of GPNMB we believe we can unleash a pre-existing immune response that could dramatically improve treatments for patients with lymphoma.