The Christie Charity
The Christie boasts a worldwide reputation for the high quality of our melanoma treatment and research.
With almost certainly the largest trial portfolio of any UK hospital, our unit is the second biggest in this country and our reputation for research enables us to offer access to emerging treatments as part of clinical trials. This includes ground breaking immunotherapy treatments - we are only one of three centres in Europe to offer this.
We work closely with our scientific colleagues in The Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute to evaluate new treatments and deliver a precision medicine programme. The CRUK Manchester Institute was formerly known as The Paterson Institute until it was designated in February 2014 as one of only three CRUK major research centres. CRUK is the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world and this will mean much greater investment into research here.
Why Manchester is at the global heart of melanoma research
In 2012 melanoma was selected by the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC -The Christie, University of Manchester and the CRUK Manchester Institute) for prioritisation for research development to make it one of the world's leading centres in five years. Collaboration with partners including the Christie Charity and CRUK will be critical to the success. The plan is for significant expansion of clinical researcher numbers to enable new discoveries that will benefit all melanoma patients, including those with rarer types only seen in bigger centres.
That same year there were two major advances for melanoma treatment and research - the approval of ipilimumab and vemurafenib by NICE. The Christie had been heavily involved in the trials of these drugs. Professor Lorigan led the trials here and was closely involved in the approval process and commented at the time 'this resets the bar for what is now standard of care and means we can push ahead with research to improve on these treatments, developments are coming at a great rate.' Since then there has been great progress made investigating novel therapies and using these new treatments in combination.
We are continuing to make major progress in the treatment of melanoma, developing new drug treatments meaning more patients are likely to live longer. But there remains a lot more to do.