Birmingham Children's Hospital

Birmingham is a Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Centre of Excellence.

We are currently investing more than £370,000 into research at Birmingham Children’s Hospital to improve treatments for children with leukaemia.

We are also investing in important research at University of Birmingham, which is also part of this Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Centre of Excellence. Find out more about all our Centres of Excellence here.

Thanks to our investment in research, nine out of ten children now survive the most common form of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), which was a virtual death sentence 50 years ago.

The last national clinical trial for children with ALL, UKALL2003, introduced the ground-breaking minimal residual disease (MRD) test, which was developed by Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research’s scientists in Bristol, with more than £3 million funding from the charity.

The MRD test is a molecular test that can predict how well children will respond to treatment and allows doctors to tailor chemotherapy to the needs of each child. This means that many children, who can be cured with low intensity treatment are spared the gruelling side effects of chemotherapy. Children who are at more risk of relapsing are given intensive treatment early on, increasing their chances of being cured.

The test has been so successful that the NHS is now paying for every child diagnosed with ALL ni the UK to be given this vital test.

Dr Sarah Lawson at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, with support from Dr Julie Irving at the University of Newcastle, is developing a new type of MRD test that is quicker, cheaper and easier to administer, but just as effective. This test uses a technique called flow cytometry to identify leukaemia cells in the blood, rather than the molecular techniques used in the current MRD test.