Queen’s team part of world-leading £5.5m research project to transform bowel cancer care

A groundbreaking £5.5 million research initiative, aimed at transforming bowel cancer care, has been launched with significant involvement from the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research at Queen’s University Belfast.

The CRC-STARS project, which unites over 40 leading experts from the UK, Spain, Italy, and Belgium, seeks to develop kinder and more effective treatments for a disease that claims 16,800 lives annually in the UK, including more than 460 in Northern Ireland.

The collaborative effort, funded jointly by Cancer Research UK (£2m), the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK (£2m), philanthropists Bjorn Saven CBE and Inger Saven (£1m), and the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (FCAECC, approximately £500,000), will focus on advancing personalised medicine.

This approach tailors treatment to the specific characteristics of an individual’s cancer, moving beyond traditional methods that focus solely on the cancer’s origin in the body.

At Queen’s University, the CRC-STARS team is led by Dr Philip Dunne, with co-investigators Dr Emma Kerr, Dr Raheleh Amirkhah, and Dr Sudhir Malla from the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research. Their research will explore how different bowel cancers respond to existing treatments, investigate why some cancers metastasise, and aim to predict which therapies are most likely to benefit individual patients.

This work is expected to pave the way for more precise and effective treatment strategies, potentially improving outcomes for thousands of patients.

Dr Philip Dunne, the CRC-STARS research lead at Queen’s, expressed optimism about the project’s potential impact.

“This research represents the culmination of many years’ work, with the substantial funding providing a unique opportunity for us to improve our understanding of colorectal cancer and how to use that new information to treat patients more effectively,” he said.

Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, remains one of the UK’s most pressing health challenges, with around 43,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Despite advances in screening and treatment, survival rates lag behind those of other major cancers, underscoring the urgency of innovative approaches like CRC-STARS.

Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, hailed the project as a landmark in the charity’s century-long fight against bowel cancer.

“For over 100 years, Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have been working to beat bowel cancer, and this project is one of the most comprehensive for bowel cancer that we have ever supported,” she said.

“Together with our funding partners – the Bowelbabe Fund, Bjorn and Inger Saven, and the FCAECC – we can empower the CRC-STARS team to speed up the development of personalised treatment for people living with bowel cancer, bringing us closer to a world where people live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”

The CRC-STARS initiative is poised to build on the legacy of collaborative cancer research while harnessing cutting-edge techniques to decode the complexities of bowel cancer.

By fostering international cooperation and leveraging diverse expertise, the project aims to deliver tangible improvements in patient care, offering hope to those affected by this devastating disease.

As the research progresses, the Queen’s University team and their European partners will share findings to accelerate the global fight against bowel cancer. For patients and families across the UK and beyond, CRC-STARS represents a beacon of hope in the quest for more effective, personalised treatments.