EPIC-GB – Pioneering brain cancer trials

How can we improve treatment for a brain cancer that hasn’t seen significant breakthroughs in nearly 20 years?

That’s the aim of EPIC-GB, a programme of new ground-breaking clinical trials designed to improve survival and quality of life for people with glioblastoma, the most common and fastest growing type of brain cancer.

Funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research, the £6.9 million programme of clinical trials will be led by Mr Ola Rominiyi, Academic Clinical Lecturer in Neurosurgery at the University of Sheffield and Neurological Resident at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, working in partnership with Professor Anthony Chalmers from the University of Glasgow and other experts across the UK.

Pioneered in Yorkshire, the clinical trials will be offered to people living with recurrent glioblastoma in Sheffield, Leeds and Hull, as well as Edinburgh, Manchester and Nottingham, enabling people to access new and potentially life-extending treatments closer to home. 

Each year in Yorkshire, nearly 250 people are diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common and fastest-growing type of brain cancer. For most, the disease returns within the first year of treatment.

Unfortunately, many cancer drugs are ineffective in treating people with glioblastoma because they are unable to reach the tumour due to a protective layer around the brain called the blood-brain barrier. This challenge has played a key role in the lack of significant breakthroughs for treating glioblastoma since 2007.

Clinical trials involving people with glioblastoma are urgently needed to find out if cancer drugs are likely to get into the brain and work.

The EPIC-GB programme of clinical trials will enable people to start trial treatments before surgery. Tumour tissue removed during the operation can then be studied, creating a valuable  ‘window of opportunity’ to quickly understand which drugs reach the tumour and are likely to be effective.

By identifying the drug treatments likely to work as early as possible, people with recurring glioblastoma can continue promising treatments, or stop them early if they don't get into the brain. This helps the person avoid unnecessary side effects and move to alternative and potentially more effective options more quickly.

Each year in Yorkshire, 247 people are diagnosed with glioblastoma and sadly, 181 die. Survival rates in Yorkshire are often lower than the national average.

Many people diagnosed with glioblastoma in Yorkshire also have fewer opportunities to take part in clinical trials compared to other regions in the UK.

EPIC-GB will help tackle regional inequalities by improving access to clinical trials and focusing on communities in Yorkshire that are historically under-represented in cancer research, including Black and South Asian communities and those experiencing high levels of deprivation.

The team aims to help speed up national progress in treating this disease, and because this research is based in Yorkshire, people in the region will be among the first to benefit from any breakthroughs.