Connecting patients, data and researchers
A platform to accelerate discovery, translation and clinical trials of rare cancer treatment and diagnostics
Research partners
RareCan is building a network of partners to enable us accelerate research into rare cancers
Research
What type of research does RareCan support?
Target discovery
Laboratory research to identify promising compounds
Using its ethically approved bioresource and with patient consent RareCan can provide tumour samples for target discovery using advanced analytical techniques. This can provide vital clues in the hunt for better treatments.
Pre-clinical
Laboratory and animal testing for preliminary efficacy and safety
Working closely with hospital pathology departments RareCan can facilitate the supply of fresh tissues for the generation of primary cultures, the establishment of organoid cultures and xenografts- specialised techniques used in the laboratory assessment of how effective and safe a new drug may be
Phase I/II clinical trials
First-in-human trials to assess drug safety and dosing
RareCan can generate the cohorts required to deliver phase I/II trials by undertaking preliminary screening against specified inclusion and exclusion criteria and then referring patients to trial centres as close to where they live as possible
Phase III clinical trials
Larger, typically randomised, trials to assess long-term safety and efficacy
With the potential to reach any patient with access to the internet, RareCan can reduce the time needed to recruit the larger numbers of patients required to deliver the phase III studies essential for health care adoption.
Observational studies
Research based on observing, rather than testing an intervention in a patient’s care
RareCan is ideally placed to help in the performance of a wide range of observational studies, including the gathering of real-world data from patients not recruited into formal clinical trials and genetic and histopathology studies on tumour tissue in the bioresource.
Clinical trial finder
The RareCan clinical trial finder helps you to find open clinical trials and support to assess whether they are potential applicable to you.
Data
What types of data does RareCan use?
Clinical data
Clinical data includes basic information such as the age and gender of a person with cancer as well as more details about the way in which they were diagnosed and treated and how they responded to any treatment that they were given.
Tumour data
Data about the tumour includes a description of its appearance under the microscope obtained from the NHS lab where it was analysed. This provides a histological diagnosis. This can also provide important information about how likely a tumour is to grow and spread.
Genetic data
Tumour and normal DNA data is collected through our NHS-approved BioResource. These data are really important to enable us to support research as researchers often target specific gene mutations or specific chemical signals in tumours.
