Child Cancer Specialist Reports Exciting Research Results

Dr Juliet Gray, a paediatric oncologist at Southampton General Hospital and senior lecturer in paediatric oncology at the University of Southampton, spends half her working week on Piam Brown Ward at Southampton General Hospital looking after children with cancer.

The other half is spent in a laboratory at the Southampton Cancer Research UK Centre seeking new treatments for neuroblastoma.

Dr Gray’s special area of research is immunotherapy and her team, who are funded by Cancer Research UK, are developing a new type of antibody to treat neuroblastoma, which is a cancer that starts in cells left over from the development of the nervous system.

It can be very difficult to treat successfully and new ideas are urgently needed. Dr Gray’s research uses the immune system to tackle the cancer.
Her team are developing a new antibody treatment which is hoped will help the immune system to realise that the tumour cells are 'hostile' and need to be attacked.
It is hoped that because the immune system has an excellent memory, the treatment will help prevent the tumour returning.
Dr Gray said: “The research is showing very exciting results in the laboratory and we hope we will be able to take it into clinical trial in children.
“If successful, this work could offer much-needed hope to neuroblastoma patients and their families”.

Dr Gray added: “I am really passionate about this research and it simply wouldn’t be possible without the help of supporters like those at Race for Life in Southampton and Winchester”.