University of Birmingham awards honorary degrees in 2018

A clinical trial testing a new treatment combination in patients with leukaemia launches through the Combinations Alliance, a joint initiative between Cancer Research UK and the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC) Network based at University of Birmingham. Researchers want to discover whether AstraZeneca and MSD's experimental medicine, selumetinib (AZD6244, ARRY-142886), can be effective in combination with dexamethasone, a treatment already used for several conditions including leukaemia. Run by the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit based at the University of Birmingham *, SeluDex is the first clinical trial to include both adults and children in the Combinations Alliance portfolio. This trial is planned to open in 23 centres throughout the UK and in 11 additional centres spanning 6 European countries, to help recruit an initial 42 patients. The phase 1 trial will examine both adults and children who have had a relapse of their acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) or refractory ALL, and who have a mutation in a gene involved in the RAS pathway. It is the first trial to incorporate such an innovative design enabling both paediatric and adult patients to test this novel combination at the same time. Researchers will investigate the most suitable dose of selumetinib in combination with dexamethasone.