£
Donate
Donate

In this project, Professor Maertens wants to understand how a virus can cause a rare type of lymphoma.

Project information

Lead researcher

Professor Goedele Maertens, Imperial College London

Research team
  • A team at Imperial College London
Related conditions
  • Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Research type
  • Non-clinical
Region
  • London
Grant awarded
  • Project Grant
Status
Ongoing
Funding award date
August 2022
Amount awarded

£249,955.67

The challenge

Adult T-cell lymphoma (ATL) is a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that is caused by a virus. Unfortunately, for this type of lymphoma, there are currently few treatments available.

The project

It’s thought that when the virus that causes this type of lymphoma enters our body, it manages to become part of a blood cell and disrupts how it normally works. It’s thought it turns on parts of the cell that are usually involved in stopping cancer developing, and Professor Goedele Maertens and her team want to know more about how this happens.

Only 5% of the people infected with the virus go on to develop this type of lymphoma and so the team also want to understand why some people infected go on to develop the disease and others don’t.

As a person affected by blood cancer, this research is of high importance in my opinion.

- Patient Voice Grant Advisory Network Member, in remission from Hodgkin lymphoma

The future

The hope is that by understanding more about how the virus causes lymphoma, the team will be able to identify new targets for treatment which could benefit people with ATL in the future.

Help us beat blood cancer by funding a research project

  • £15 could help eight people newly diagnosed with blood cancer understand their condition.
  • £30 could help researchers study blood cancer cells to develop new treatments and improve early diagnosis.
  • £50 could help scientists identify genetic patterns in tumour samples to better understand how genes contribute to the development of blood cancer.
Donate