Despite great progress in medical research, some leukaemias still do not respond to current treatments, or the disease returns. For those children who do relapse, their disease becomes even harder to treat and their options rapidly begin to run out. Additionally, current treatments are brutal, not only destroying cancer cells but also damaging healthy cells. Chemotherapy can last for years, and can lead to crippling side effects, such as strokes, infertility, and even second cancer.

We urgently need kinder cures. This exciting research programme will investigate and analyse the faulty genes that drive childhood leukaemia and improve our ability to pinpoint the biological features that are key to treatment resistance and relapse. It is hoped that this information can be utilised to design less toxic, more effective and targeted drugs, particularly for hard-to-treat, relapsed disease.