Alice’s Arc has been supporting this work alongside other charities such as KickCancer Foundation since this work started back in 2018. The results of the pilot study have been published in an article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and the the link to the story from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) can be found here.
The pilot study validates that a liquid biopsy in children with RMS could play a vital role in detecting and predicting the path of the disease. The next step is to commence testing and analysis as part of the international clinical trial FaR-RMS.
The ICR were kind enough to include the below quote from Alice’s Arc which sums up why this project is so important from a family perspective.
“This research is incredibly important to families impacted by rhabdomyosarcoma and the findings of the pilot study are promising. The possibility of being able to detect and predict the path of the disease via a blood test would be a complete game changer. It is about time that this became common practice for childhood cancers like rhabdomyosarcoma. It is a far more efficient and less invasive way to monitor disease in these children. We are delighted to continue investing funds into the next stage of the research to test these findings in the setting of an international clinical trial.”
We look forward to supporting the work of Professor Janet Shipley’s team at the Institute of Cancer Research on this project over the coming years.
