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Exploring ways to ‘heat up’ the tumour immune environment in paediatric diffuse high-grade glioma

But, what do you mean by 'heating up'? Read on to learn more.

An update on an OSCAR’s-funded research project being carried out by Dr. Julia Cockle and her team at the Institute of Cancer Research.

Julia Cockle and team

The team at ICR

Paediatric-type diffuse high grade gliomas are aggressive childhood brain tumours, associated with poor survival. There is urgent need to develop new treatments for children and teenagers with this disease.

One approach that is currently gathering momentum is the use of Immunotherapy, which utilises the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells by helping the immune system better recognise and attack them.

At the Institute of Cancer Research, London, a team led by Dr. Julia Cockle are interested in developing a particular type of immunotherapy using oncolytic viruses for children with paediatric-type diffuse high grade gliomas.

Oncolytic viruses are special in the way that they can preferentially infect and kill cancer cells, while leaving normal cells unharmed. Alongside their ability to directly kill cancer cells, oncolytic viruses can also release signals that stimulate the body’s own immune system to recognise and attack the tumour. This can act to ‘heat-up’ the environment surrounding a tumour and can means the tumours are more responsive to immunotherapy treatments.

Furthermore, combining oncolytic viruses with other cancer treatments has the potential to improve cancer-cell killing and may improve outcomes for patients.

Understanding more about how these oncolytic viruses work and how they can be used in combination with other treatments will guide future clinical trials for young patients with paediatric-type diffuse high grade glioma.

At the Institute of Cancer Research, using state-of-the-art techniques, scientists can now identify and position immune cells around a tumour and explore their activity.

They are working with a range of oncolytic viruses to evaluate how these viruses can alter the types of immune cells surrounding a tumour and how this can ‘heat-up’ this environment and make it harder for the tumour to survive.

The latest news is that the team at ICR have now demonstrated that their oncolytic viruses can kill paediatric-type diffuse high grade glioma tumour cells.
They have also shown that the oncolytic viruses can increase the number of immune cells surrounding these tumours, including T-cells, that have the potential to recognize and kill cancer cells. Furthermore, they have also observed that oncolytic virus treatment can deplete immune cells that act to protect the tumour.

For the next stage of this project, Dr. Cockle and her team will now explore drugs in combination with their oncolytic viruses to identify if this can enhance the activity of the viruses. This will help guide new treatment options for patients.

 

Your donations make research like this possible.

Together, we're improving outcomes for childhood brain tumour survivors.

OSCARs Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity have funded this project as part of their 2024/25 research call. Marie Hughes, founder of the charity said, “Having worked with families whose children have been diagnosed with diffuse high-grade gliomas and seen such poor prognosis – just 2% of children diagnosed survive past five years- the charity felt it was essential to explore key research to change the options from medical teams being left with no other choice but to tell families to go an make memories.” 

Dr. Cockle said, “Our work will advance understanding of the use of oncolytic virus therapy for children and young patients with paediatric-type diffuse high grade glioma, an area of unmet clinical need where new treatment approaches are very much needed. Our work has the potential to improve survival for this patient group and will inform future clinical trials for children with this devastating diagnosis.”

Thank you again for helping make this possible.

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Rachel James

Community Fundraising Assistant
Rachel will join our team on September 1st and will be doing a wide range of tasks including promoting the charity in the local community, developing relationships with different people and organisations, and finding new fundraising opportunities. She comes from a caring background having been a teaching assistant and emotional literacy support assistant in York for many years, and previously leading a community care team. She has also done many years of work in the voluntary sector.

Matthew Taylor

Trustee

Matthew Taylor is Director of the York Health Economics Consortium at the University of York. He has been a supporter of OSCAR’s since its inception and, through his twenty years of research into the measurement of health-related quality of life, Matthew is keenly aware of the huge benefits that new treatments can bring to people living with brain tumours.

Matthew is actively involved in national-level healthcare decision making, having had former roles as the Scientific Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)’s Economic and Methodological Unit and as a committee member for NICE’s Public Health Advisory Group. He has over fifty peer-reviewed scientific publications, including a chapter in the textbook ‘The Business, Policy and Economics of Neurosurgery’.

Ryan Mathew

Clinical Trustee

Ryan Mathew is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds and an Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Leeds Teaching Hospitals.

The Hughes Family story had a big impact on Ryan. He first learnt of the charity when he became surgeon to Oscar’s dad, Ian. After a successful surgery, he continued to show great care and concern for the family when Ian became ill again and when Milo, Oscar’s brother, was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Ryan is driven to make life outcomes better for brain tumour patients and their families. His extensive work in both research and surgery is testament to that commitment.

His clinical practice covers the full spectrum of general neurosurgery with a subspecialty in brain tumours. His research focuses on advanced brain tumour models, residual therapy-resistant glioma cell populations, local therapeutic treatments and surgical technologies and devices. He peer-reviews for several journals and grant award committees and has published numerous papers.

More information on Ryan’s work

Lisa Dawson

Trustee

Lisa has been a friend of the Hughes family since 2016 and was honoured to be asked in 2022 to represent OSCAR’s PBTC as Social & Digital Trustee.  Both Lisa and her family have taken part in numerous fundraising events and are dedicated to raising awareness of paediatric brain tumours.  Lisa is a social media content creator, blogger and writer and lives in York with her husband Joe and three children, Ella, Max and Leo.

Alice Beckwith

Trustee

Alice has been involved with OSCAR’s PBTC since 2020. She passionately supports the aims of the charity and believes that if the charity can change one life for the better, then it is a success. Working in the public sector for 18 years, Alice has helped transform Adult and Children’s Social Care Services by ensuring heavy investment in preventative services. This is why the impact OSCAR’s work will have on families is at the forefront of Alice’s motivation to be involved.

As partnerships trustee, Alice is keen to involve businesses, trusts and individuals in the work OSCAR’s does and show them the role they can have in providing the base for the charity to continue to expand its projects to help children with brain tumours.

Sarah Jane Gray

Trustee/Secretary

Sarah has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and surgical sales sector and is very familiar with the importance of medical advancements for better patient outcomes. She believes research is essential for improving diagnosis, treatment and prognosis for all children with brain tumours and hopes OSCAR’s PBTC can offer much needed funding to help push the boundaries in finding better ways of curing this devastating disease. Sarah’s focus as a treasurer will ensure record-keeping and accounts meet the conditions of the statutory bodies and compliance with regulatory organisations.

Holly Dixon

Trustee

Holly is mother to George, diagnosed with an ATRT brain tumour in 2022, and works as a primary school teacher. She believes that action to support others -however small- can make a massive difference.


She brings real-life experience of what it is like for a parent navigating everyday life, the NHS, the education system, questions from people and a lively young child with different needs.

meet the oscar's team

Sam Marino

Trustee
Sam was Headteacher at a school where Alfie Hutchinson died from an ependymoma brain tumour, at the age of 10. After becoming close with Alfie’s family Sam found OSCAR’s and reached out to the charity to help support the family, staff, children and local community. 
 
Sam understands the immediate and long term effects on a community when losing a child to a brain tumour. 
 
‘After seeing first hand the amazing work that OSCAR’s do, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be part of the team. I’d like to help raise awareness in educational settings, for teachers and for parents – to empower them to seek early detection/diagnosis. Phil once said to me, ‘You never expect to become part of the brain tumour community, then all of a sudden you are.’ What an inspiring and powerful community it is.”

Marie Hughes

ChAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Marie founded the charity with her husband Ian, who passed away in 2020. She is the mother of four boys. Two of Marie’s sons have died from different types of brain tumours – Oscar who was 9 and Milo who was 5 years old. She is determined to help find better treatments for brain tumours so other children won’t have to go through what her own sons and her family have.

Marie is Chair of the Board of Trustees, working closely withe the team on strategy and vision. Marie lives in Copenhagen with her two other sons, Sebastian and Lucas, and works as a Risk Manager on the Danish railway.