Funded by the Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Lead investigator: Professor Suzanne Turner, University of Cambridge
Award: £37,414.68
Awarded September 2026
The challenge
Neuroblastoma is a type of cancer that grows in a child’s nervous system during development. It is very challenging to cure children with high-risk forms of the cancer that grow back after treatment. Many need intensive treatment – however, this can cause lifelong side effects like fertility issues, hearing loss, and lung disease.
Researchers are working on more modern treatments, like immunotherapies which help the immune system find and fight neuroblastoma. A common form of immunotherapy for neuroblastoma teaches the immune system to recognise GD2, a protein found at high levels on neuroblastoma cells. This should show the immune system which cells to attack, effectively fighting the cancer, but it doesn’t work for all children.
The project
In this project, Professor Suzanne Turner at the University of Cambridge wants to find a way to make anti-GD2 immunotherapy work better. Previous research has shown that a drug called palbociclib can reduce neuroblastoma growth and push the cancer cells into an aged state where they can no longer make new cancer cells. Her team want to see if palbociclib could work with anti-GD2 immunotherapy. They think this combination could make neuroblastoma cells age and stop dividing, making it easier for the immune system to recognise and kill them.
To generate data that could push this treatment forward into clinical trials, the team will test the combination treatment on neuroblastoma cells and tumour samples in the lab. They will look at whether the two drugs work together, and how it could affect a child’s immune system.
The impact
If the two treatments are shown to work well together, Prof Turner hopes that her team will be in a position to start work on a clinical trial. In the longer term, if clinical trials are successful, these findings could influence neuroblastoma treatment protocols, relapse management strategies, hopefully leading to improved survival and reduced side effects for children with high-risk neuroblastoma.
The Little Princess Trust
This project was funded by The Little Princess Trust. They fund research projects in partnership with CCLG, combining CCLG's research funding and grant management expertise with The Little Princess Trust's fantastic fundraising to support world-class scientific research.