Blood Cancer UK partners with RareCan to improve delivery of clinical trials

Charity Blood Cancer UK has teamed up with oncology company RareCan to support the organisation’s delivery of clinical trials focussed on the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of rare cancers.

The partnership will see Blood Cancer UK join the charity network GIST Cancer UK as RareCan’s partner. The aim is to enable people living with forms of rare blood cancers, such as leukaemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, to volunteer to take part in potentially lifesaving clinical research, by providing tissue and blood samples, and genetic data.

Blood cancer is the UK’s third biggest cancer killer, with around 15,000 people dying each year. With surgery and radiotherapy rarely an option for treating this kind of cancer, it’s crucial that investment into research to find new and better treatments continues so even more lives can be saved.

RareCan offers a source of information to researchers by providing rapid, joined up access to patients, data and bio-samples, reducing the time it takes researchers to find the exact patients or tissue needed for their rare cancer targets from months to weeks.

“This partnership with Blood Cancer UK is a great step forward in RareCan’s evolution and for the research community as a whole,” Piers Kotting, founding director and chief executive officer at RareCan commented. “As the pharmaceutical industry increasingly focuses on rare forms of cancer, there is a need for the more highly targeted approach that RareCan provides, with access to detailed clinical, molecular and genetic data to identify the right patients at the right time. We look forward to working closely with Blood Cancer UK to support their patient community.”

Gemma Peters, CEO at Blood Cancer UK, said: “There are many myths surrounding clinical trials that can prevent people taking part in meaningful studies and having the opportunity to try potentially safer, kinder, more effective treatments. By working with RareCan, we hope to support and help navigate our patient community even further when it comes to clinical trial participation.”