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• About cancer research
• Understanding 'risk'
• Our history and achievements
  • Our history
  • Our achievements
    • Advances in basic research
    • Advances in clinical research and drug development
    • Advances in population research
    • Advances in information provision

Advances in clinical research and drug development

We have a long history of developing new and more effective treatments for cancer and delivering these to patients in clinical trials. You can read more about clinical research in the 'About cancer research' section.

Stilboestrol

Stilboestrol, a synthetic hormone that mimics the action of the female sex hormone oestrogen, was inveted in in 1937 by Professor Charles Dodds. The drug was initially used to treat breast cancer, before becoming the drug of choice for prostate cancer in the 1940s.

Chlorambucil, melphalan and busulphan

In the 1950s we funded work that led to the development of three important anti-cancer drugs: chlorambucil, melphalan and busulphan. These are still regarded as mainstays of therapy for myeloma, lymphoma and some leukaemias.

Cisplatin

Cisplatin, a platinum-based drug, was invented in the late 60s in America, but it was developed as an anti-cancer drug in London by Professor Tom Connors, and first tested at the Royal Marsden Hospital. In combination with other drugs, cisplatin has transformed the outlook for men with testicular cancer, with around 80 per cent of men with advanced cancer and 95 per cent of cases overall, now being treated successfully.

Carboplatin

Carboplatin, the successor to cisplatin, was developed by Professor Ken Harrap's research group in the 1980s. Unlike cisplatin, carboplatin does not damage the kidneys and has proved to be important in the treatment of cancer of the testicles, ovaries and lung.

Breast cancer research

Evaluation of treatment

We funded several large comparative trials in the 1980s, which contributed significantly to the world overview of treatment for breast cancer in the early 90s. The results showed clear improvements in survival for thousands of women when surgery was used with combination chemotherapy for younger women and with hormone treatment for older women.

Tamoxifen for young women

Over two thirds of post-menopausal breast cancer patients have “oestrogen-receptor positive” breast cancer – that is to say that oestrogen, the female sex hormone, acts as a signal telling these cancer cells to grow. Tamoxifen is a drug that blocks oestrogen’s action and was first used to treat breast cancer in 1969.

Cancer Research UK’s Clinical Trial Service Unit (CBTU) in Oxford leads an on-going international collaboration of doctors and scientists called the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTG). This group published a study in 1998 which showed that giving tamoxifen immediately after surgery to all breast cancer patients who needed it, no matter how young they are, could save an extra 20,000 each year worldwide.

The findings overturned accepted wisdom that tamoxifen has no benefit for younger women.

IBIS

In the early 1980s, Professor Jack Cuzick’s team, now based at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre at Barts and the London Hospital, noticed that some women who were receiving the drug for cancer in one breast did not develop any cancer in the other. This prompted the suggestion that tamoxifen might have another preventative role, for women who are at risk of getting breast cancer but have yet to develop any signs of the disease.

In 1992, Professor Cuzick’s team, now based at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre at Barts and the London Hospital, started a huge international study called the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS I). This study investigated treating women at high risk of breast cancer with tamoxifen, to see if it could prevent them from developing the disease.

The initial results, published in 2002, showed that tamoxifen reduced breast cancer rates by 30% in these women, although there were some side-effects such as hot flushes and an increased risk of uterine cancer.

They are now conducting a follow-up study, IBIS II. This study will recruit 10,000 post-menopausal women over the next four years, and aims to look at the effectiveness of anastrozole, a newer drug that also affects the oestrogen system. Anastrozole works by inhibiting a protein called aromatase, that is responsible for making oestrogen, and seems to cause fewer side-effects than tamoxifen.

CHART

CHART, a type of radiotherapy treatment that delivers radiation to the patient in many small doses over a short period of time, was developed at Mount Vernon Hospital in London, with support from Cancer Research UK. In 1995, a large multi-centre clinical trial showed that CHART significantly improves survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. This approach has also been shown to be effective in the treatment of cancer of the voicebox (larynx).

Temozolomide

Temozolomide (Temodal™) is a drug that has brought substantial benefit to some patients with glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. Research supported by Cancer Research UK led to the development of this promising new drug. In 1999, it was licensed to Schering-Plough in Europe and the USA for brain cancer treatment. Temozolomide is now in the process of being tested against other types of cancer.