Interview with Anthony Ng, new Lead at Bristol Paediatric ECMC

30 Sep 2020
Interviews

Which ECMC are you based at?

I'm based at Bristol Children's Hospital (Paediatric & Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Units)

Can you tell us a little about your career so far?

I was a Paediatric Oncology research fellow with the Institute of Cancer Studies in University of Manchester and a national grid trainee in Paediatric Oncology in Birmingham Children's Hospital, prior to taking up my current consultant post.

What is your research area of focus?

My research interests are on clinical treatment trials for solid and CNS tumours in children and adolescents, the impact of biological and genetic characteristics of high-risk cancers, refractory and relapsed disease to treatment, and late complications of cancer treatment.

Are there any key challenges or emerging opportunities in this field at the moment?

Challenges include the rarity of specific diseases and number of patients for recruitment into clinical trials, barriers for patient access to relevant clinical trials, including TYA patients, and funding for research, administrative and clinical support. Our key opportunities lie in the collaborative effort and enthusiasm through ECMC and other professional networks (national and international).

What are you most looking forward to in joining the ECMC Paediatric Strategy Group?

  • Working with and learning from my national colleagues in the network.
  • Helping to build on, extend, and promote early phase trial activities and the research portfolio in Paediatric ECMCs, aiming to make advances on patients' management and gain better understanding of refractory/ relapsed diseases.
  • Facilitating robust patient access, including those from the South West, to relevant early phase cancer trials within the national ECMC network.