ROYAL MARSDEN CLINICIANS ARE AWARDED NATIONAL PANDEMIC PRIZE
Royal Marsden’s CAPTURE study has been awarded a national award by the UK COVID Cancer Program for their efforts in providing state of the art molecular analyses in order to define risk to cancer patients.
Awards were given to Prof.Samra Turajilic, Dr Scott Shepherd and the wider CAPTURE research team.
The CAPTURE study re-focused molecular immune phenotyping techniques towards the pandemic response for cancer patients throughout 2022. They investigated the immune responses of cancer patients on and off treatments to define who responded to vaccination and published a number of landmark studies.
Dr James Platt, research excellence award co-lead said “Large numbers of clinical and research staff were committed from Royal Marsden Hospitals towards the COVID pandemic effort for cancer pateints in the UK. It was a very successful venture and one that undoubtedly helped define who remained at risk”
Dr Justin Liu, research excellence award co-lead noted “The number of publications coming out of this consortium was most impressive. The advances in immune phenotyping developed out of the pandemic response are likely to have wider benefits beyond the pandemic”.
Dr Lennard YW Lee, co-lead of the UK COVID Cancer Programme said “The strength of the UK cancer programme is in molecular phenotyping. The CAPTURE study moved quickly to re-purpose their molecular diagnostic tests at a time of great national need“
Background
- The UK COVID Cancer Programme awards nationally competitive prizes to individuals, research consortium or clinical teams going above and beyond for the pandemic response for cancer patients
- The UK COVID Cancer Programme was established in March 2020 and consists of 89 cancer centers to safeguard, evaluate and protect cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic