The Anticancer Fund

Osteosarcoma is the most common bone cancer in children and adolescents. Despite intensive chemotherapy and surgery, standard treatments which have not changed in more than 30 years, the five-year survival is still below 70%. Near half of treated patients will develop metastatic tumours, mostly in the lungs. New research suggests that using the drug ketorolac just before surgery may reduce the rate of metastatic disease and so save lives. Dr Pan Pantziarka, a scientist working for the Anticancer Fund (www.anticancerfund.org), lost his own son, George, to osteosarcoma in 2011 and is now working on a clinical trial investigating the use of ketorolac in osteosarcoma.

The Anticancer Fund supports clinical trials into non-commerical therapies that have the potential to improve outcomes in patient groups with high unmet needs, including rare cancers and metastatic and late-stage disease. Part of this work includes the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) project. This is an international collaboration looking at re-using non-cancer drugs, like ketorolac, in cancer treatments where there is evidence that they have clinically beneficial effects. Pan Pantziarka is also the co-founder and chairman of the George Pantziarka TP53 Trust, a UK-based not-for-profit organisation supporting families with the rare genetic cancer condition called Li Fraumeni Syndrome (www.tp53.co.uk).

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