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Camilla Nurse helps cancer research at UCLH

Camilla Nurse helps cancer research at UCLH

UCL Hospitals Charitable Foundation, with the very generous support of The AlFayed Charitable Foundation, funded a Paediatric Oncology Research Nurse. The post, known as the Camilla Nurse, was taken up in April 2013 by Rosie Newth and the position continued until 2015. Here, we spoke to Rosie when she first took up the position, and she told us about her new post and some of the cancer research she was involved with.

"My role as a Camilla Nurse is helping to enhance the portfolio expansion of early phase clinical trials available for children and adolescents at UCLH. Since starting in post my role has been full and varied with many successes to report from the Children’s and Young Person’s Cancer Service Research Team. The Camilla Nurse role has allowed our team to grow and I now manage two further paediatric oncology research nurses and a research nurse who focuses on teenage and young adult cancer patients.

In the spring of 2013 we opened our 2nd commercial early phase paediatric pharmaceutical trial to recruitment. Our team is participating in the phase II element of this trial providing access to an exciting new drug for paediatric patients with relapsed or refractory systemic Anaplastic Large-Cell Lymphoma or Hodgkin Lymphoma. This drug has been tested in adult populations with promising results.

We have also begun recruitment to a phase III academic trial for children, adolescents and young adults with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and Lymphoma. This trial is recruiting well at our site and seeks to raise an already high overall survival rate from 87% to 95% with a focus on a reduction on treatment related morbidity.

My team continues as the highest recruiting national site for the first international Inter-Group Study for nodular Lymphocyte-Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma (nLPHL) in Children and Adolescents. We have recruited 5 out of a total 10 patients recruited nationally to this study which seeks to optimize first line therapy for childhood nLPHL to avoid over-treatment and decrease long-term complications."

The Camilla Nurse post at UCLH made a real and lasting difference to the treatments we were able to offer children and young people with cancer at UCLH and also to the future outlook for cancer patients.

UCL Hospitals Charitable Foundation is extremely grateful to The AlFayed Charitable Foundation for their generous support of this post.