New PhD research project begins in Sheffield Hospital

Desmoplastic small round cell tumours (DSRCT) are a rare type of cancer which usually develops in the abdomen and occurs in young males. It has a poor prognosis with less than 20% of people who have had the disease being alive five years after diagnosis. Treatment consists of chemotherapy,

radiotherapy and surgery but at the moment this is not very effective. The research team has already got some knowledge into the behaviour of the two genes that join together to develop this cancer. They have some new drugs they would like to see working with DSRCT.  This will hopefully lead to more effective and less toxic treatment for this devastating disease.

Our funding will be used to fund the consumables required for the project. Research into DSRCT is uncommon in the UK due to the rarity of the tumour. This project represents a new direction which could lead to a larger programme investigating novel therapies for fusion-driven DSRCT and other sarcomas.

This is Michael Probert, our researcher.