grant

News

Open trials

Work continues on collecting follow-up data for the RCHOP14 vs 21 trial and the primary outcome results are to be presented at the American Society of Haematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in December 2010.  An abstract for the RCHOP14 vs 21 is to be submitted to the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting which will take place in Chicago in June 2011.  This trial has recruited more than a 1,000 patients from over 100 hospitals in the UK.

Initial results from the Watch and Wait trial have been submitted to the American Society of Haematology (ASH) meeting in December.  Several abstracts relating to the Watch and Wait trial are to be submitted to the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma in Lugano June 2011. These abstracts will report clinical, laboratory and quality of life data from the trial.

Closed trials

The LY02 paper (‘Final analysis of the UKLG LY02 trial comparing 6–8 cycles of CHOP with 3 cycles of CHOP followed by a BEAM autograft in patients <65 years with poor prognosis histologically aggressive NHL’) was published in the British Journal of Haematology on 1 March 2010.

Work on revising the Radiation Dose trial manuscript is nearly complete and the Trials Office hope to submit to the Journal of Clinical Oncology very shortly.

Further work has also been done on the LY07 manuscript which is now nearly finalised and will soon be submitted.

The long standing collaboration with Professor Swerdlow continues to bear fruit and a paper looking at the risk of second malignancy after chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma will shortly be submitted to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Follow-up

Discussions are continuing with the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) about how best to collect long term follow-up for trial patients. The NCIN has access to hospital and GP data on millions of patients but it is currently incomplete (i.e. most data are only currently available for England and GP data is only available on 13 million people at present). This means that the Lymphoma Trial Office will need to continue to collect data for the foreseeable future.

New trials

No new lymphoma trials have opened since the last report but two new trials are being developed for patients with Waldenstroms Macroglobulinaemia in conjunction with the NCRI myeloma subgroup.

New grants awarded (Jan 2010)

New grants awarded (June 2010)

Report from Lymphoma Clinical Fellow Lisa Lowry:

 I have recently completed a two-year clinical fellowship funded by the Lymphoma Research Trust.  This has been very productive and a valuable part of my training. 

Prior to taking up the post, I was in the final year of specialist registrar training in haematology on the North West Thames rotation.  I wanted to specialise in clinical haemato-oncology, particularly lymphoma management, and have a strong interest in clinical research.  The post of Clinical Fellow has allowed me to gain extensive experience at the Lymphoma Trials Office (LTO), providing specialist training in developing clinical trials, getting funding, ethical and regulatory approval, the running of trials, analysis and reporting.  Positions such as these are rare and of particular importance to modern clinical trial development as the processes involved have become very complex.  I consider myself very fortunate to have had this opportunity.

During my time at the LTO I undertook a review of the methods of obtaining long-term follow-up information from patients.  Long-term follow-up is of critical importance in devising current and future treatment regimes, as late-effects can only be fully appreciated with careful and complete collection of long-term data.  It is important to maximise the return in this area, whilst using as few resources as possible at the trials office and in hospitals.  We have developed links with the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) and are investigating alternative methods of obtaining data via national registries – pilot work is ongoing in this area.

I have been able to provide clinical support for the trials teams at the LTO and contribute to education there.  I have also been able to continue to gain specialist clinical experience by partaking in lymphoma clinics and multi-disciplinary meetings at UCLH.  I have been privileged to have attended national and international meetings and obtain publications of my own.

I am currently undertaking translational research linked to one of the recent lymphoma trials, and am still funded by the Lymphoma Research Trust.  In addition to working towards a higher degree, this period has provided experience of laboratory research, and, very importantly, how this links with clinical trials.  I hope to complete this work in 2012 and obtain a consultant position with special interest in lymphoma and maintain strong involvement with clinical trials. 

I believe that the specialist training I have received has been of immense value and would not have been possible without funding from the Lymphoma Research Trust.