MCRC Director's Update - January 2025

A very warm welcome to 2025 where we have updates on the Manchester Cancer Research Centre’s activities and awards.

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Emma Crosbie’s NIHR Professorship

First, a huge congratulations to Professor Emma Crosbie who has been awarded a highly prestigious NIHR Professorship for 2024. Emma is among seven other UK researchers to have been awarded this honour.

Over the course of her award, Emma will focus on developing a triage tool for the early detection of endometrial cancer in women with postmenopausal bleeding. Emma aims to assess the accuracy of the triage tool to determine whether it can accurately predict who might be at higher risk of endometrial cancer. It is hoped that this could avoid unnecessarily testing women at lower risk and instead redirect resources towards more efficient pathways.

This award caps off an incredible 2024 for Emma coming only months after her AACR Team Science award in April 2024 which recognised her team’s work on Lynch-syndrome associated endometrial cancer.

Congratulations Emma for your ongoing and international leadership in early detection for Manchester.

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Ca-PRI 2025

There are now less than three months to go until Manchester hosts the Ca-PRI conference. As one of the largest conferences for primary care cancer research, this international conference represents a significant opportunity for Manchester to spotlight some of the latest developments in this fundamental field of cancer research.

Taking place between 29th-30th April 2025 at the Lowry, registration is now open and the final programme is due to be released soon.

5K Fundraising

We sprinted into the January with a touching tribute to Sarah Harding, the Girls Aloud singer who passed away from breast cancer in 2021. In her final project at the MCRC, Communications Officer, Sally Best, collaborated with Dr Sacha Howell to organise a 5K fundraising run in Sarah’s honour supporting the breast cancer appeal at The Christie Charity.

The appeal supports initiatives like BCAN-RAY, an initiative led by Sacha Howell aiming to improve early detection and prevention in young women. Thank you to everyone who supported the race and continues to support Sarah’s legacy.

Watch Sacha talk about this project on ITV News.

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In other developments from the MCRC

• Next month sees us mark World Cancer Day with the latest exhibition in the Oglesby Cancer Research Building. Stay tuned for more details about “United by Unique” which will be open between 3rd February and 24th February 2025.

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I hope everyone has a wonderful February, and I look forward to updating you at the end of the month.

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Robert Bristow

Director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre

Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Centre