About Us

WE ARE THE CANCER CLINICAL RESEARCH TRUST

Our History

CCRT is a registered charity (RCN:20035242) founded by Professor John Crown, and which now supports a truly translational cancer research program, under the leadership of the CCRT Board of Directors. Translational research is research which spans the laboratory and the clinic. Often referred to as ‘bench- to-bedside’ research as the aim is to translate findings made in the lab to patient care.

We are a small organisation and pride ourselves on being lean with minimal administration costs.

Our clinical trials are conducted across all cancer types including breast, ovarian, prostate, lung, pancreatic and melanoma (skin cancer), to name but a few.

We currently have 10 full-time, laboratory-based researchers who are investigating novel treatment options for breast cancer, melanoma, uveal melanoma, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer. We are delighted that elements of this research have now reached the point where they are being translated into novel cancer clinical trials for patients.

We are very grateful for your support and guarantee that 100% of any funds raised will be channelled into our cancer research programme.

The CCRT Mission Statement

The Cancer Clinical Research Trust Ltd is dedicated to reducing the burden of cancer suffering through the development of improved treatment for cancer patients.

The CCRT Charitable Statement

The main object for which the company is established is to benefit the community by facilitating research into cancer, through the provision of logistical support, monitoring, data collection and other facilities ancillary thereto.

Despite substantial advances in cancer research, advances which have led to improved treatments and patients outcomes, cancer remains a principal cause of death in Ireland and other countries.

The Cancer Clinical Research Trust Ltd is a registered charity which supports a cancer research program which is based throughout many leading institutions in Dublin. The primary focus of our work is “translational research”, that is research which spans the laboratory and the clinic. Prior to the translational era of cancer research, there was a division between medical researchers who investigated new treatments in patients, and cancer scientists, whose work sometimes seemed to have limited relevance to the real world of cancer sufferers.

In the translational approach, all of the new treatments which are tested in patients are derived from solid scientific observations which were made in the laboratory. Similarly, information about the effects of new treatments on the patient and on their cancer is fed back to the laboratory scientists, in order to make the lab research maximally relevant to patient care.

This world-wide clinical-laboratory partnership has resulted in revolutionary new treatments for many types of cancer. Your support of CCRT enables our researchers to participate in and to contribute to the world-wide war on cancer.

Prof. John Crown

WHAT WE DO

Funding Cancer Research

Your donation is used to support cancer research in Ireland. We fund hospital and university-based cancer researchers.

A particular focus is the funding of early-stage cancer researchers in Dublin City University and University College Dublin in order to help them develop a strong research foundation so that they may establish a long-term cancer research career.

CCRT also partner with the Irish Research Council in supporting PhD and post-doctoral research students through their enterprise partnership schemes. Leveraging of this funding allows us to support even more researchers.

Funding a researcher not only includes their salary but also the research materials required to conduct the project as well as a travel stipend to ensure that their findings can be disseminated to a worldwide audience at cancer research conferences.

Cancer patients in Ireland for whom the mainstream cancer treatment programme is not enough must be able to trust that the options available here are as advanced and as groundbreaking as anywhere else in the world. We can only get that by having an active and well-resourced research programme here that is working with collaborators worldwide. The CCRT clinical team and our researchers do just that.

OUR PARTNER

The Caroline Foundation

The Caroline Dwyer-Hickey Cancer Research Foundation (The Caroline Foundation) was recently established in memory of Caroline Dwyer-Hickey who passed away on 25 March 2013 aged 35 after a nine year battle with cancer. The purpose of the Foundation is to fund a research scientist to work under Professor John Crown in his Dublin-based clinical cancer research programme.

Caroline was a patient of Prof. Crown’s from the time of her being diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2004. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy arrested the development of the disease but in February 2008 the cancer was once again active. From then to the time of her death Caroline courageously participated in a number of clinical trials both in Ireland and the US- in some cases was the first in Ireland to do so. She was fiercely determined to do whatever was within her power to beat her cancer. Each trial programme bought Caroline extra time. She firmly believed that research will one day find a cure.

The Caroline Foundation is built on, and is testimony to, that hope and faith in the work of The Clinical Cancer Research Trust (CCRT)

Visit The Caroline Foundation