The £3 million VIVO Biobank is supported by the charities Cancer Research UK and Blood Cancer UK and will provide cancer researchers with a centralised collection of cell and tissue samples from children and young people affected by cancer across the country.

The samples will form a crucially important resource as many children’s and young people's cancers are extremely rare. This has made it difficult for researchers to access sufficient samples from patients in order to study them.

VIVO Biobank is a merger of two existing biobanks – the Newcastle one will study solid tumours and the other at York will focus on leukaemia. The merging of the Banks also allows additional genetic and clinical data to be made available, aiding research into these cancers.

There are around 4,200 new cancer cases in children and young people in the UK every year.

Leading the way

Professor Deborah Tweddle, Director of VIVO Biobank, from the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer, said: “This is a huge opportunity for the UK to lead the way in Children’s and Young people’s cancer research by providing a single point of access to researchers for precious samples, particularly for researchers who may want to work on many different types of cancer.

“Around 80% of childhood and young people’s cancer is cured by current treatments and we hope VIVO biobank will promote world class research for those types not currently curable and lead to the development of kinder treatments for others.

 “We are enormously grateful to Cancer Research UK and Blood Cancer UK for supporting this vital research resource which will enable world class Children’s and Young People's cancer research to flourish.”

Professor Alexandra Smith, Co-Deputy Director of VIVO Biobank, from the Epidemiology and Cancer Statistics Group in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, added: “Bringing our biobanks together is going to enable more children and young people to donate samples and along with the additional clinical data provide an invaluable resource for scientists.

“This will make more research possible on prevention, diagnostics and treatments for children and young people with cancer than ever before.”

Driving research

Dr Laura Danielson, Cancer Research UK’s Children’s and Young People’s Research Lead, said: “We have seen great progress in treating children’s and young people’s cancer over the years, but more work still needs to be done.

"This is why we are immensely proud to be supporting the VIVO Biobank, which will help drive a bedrock of research that will take us to a future where more children and young people with cancer will survive and go on to lead healthy, fulfilling lives.”