Two cancer research projects receive funding boost from charity

Researchers at University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland are working on multiple myeloma, a currently incurable blood cancer.

Two Irish blood cancer research projects received a funding boost yesterday, thanks to charity Breakthrough Cancer Research.

Researchers at University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) are working on multiple myeloma, a currently incurable blood cancer. This is the second most common blood cancer, with about 103,000 new cases per year worldwide. Symptoms can include bone pain, increased infections, and tiredness.

Breakthrough Cancer Research chief executive Orla Doran said: “My own father, Professor Gerry O’Sullivan, who was the founder of Cork Cancer Research Centre, died from this disease because the treatments he was on stopped working before he could have a stem cell transplant.

“He would be so proud to think that we are on supporting work trying to overcome this drug resistance.”

At UCD, Professor Peter O’Gorman, a consultant haematologist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, is working on why drug resistance develops to therapy.

His is a joint award from the charity and Health Research Charities Ireland with the Health Research Board.

Researcher Lyndsey Flanagan was funded to work with Professor Siobhan Glavey and Dr Tríona Ní Chonghaile at RCSI.

She is working on profiling technology to identify multiple myeloma cells which are reliant on proteins that make them resistant to existing drugs.

Shock diagnosis

Tommy Clince was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2012. The diagnosis was a shock as he was then receiving treatment for chronic back pain through different doctors and centres.

When he was referred to the Mater for blood tests, they called him to return just hours later.

The Meath man said: “When we got to the hospital, I was rushed into ICU as my kidneys were failing and I was hooked up to a dialysis machine.”

He was started on chemotherapy when his kidneys recovered and then had a stem cell transplant. Now 58, he is on a lifelong medication regime, taking tablets for 21 days with a seven-day break.

“Even though hearing that I had multiple myeloma was the biggest shock, I am so thankful for all the amazing research that has been done and is still going on,” he said.

Mr Clince’s wife Niamh is recovering from breast cancer now, and he hopes their stories would encourage people. 

“There is life after cancer,” he said.