Pioneering UK clinical trial for rare cancer receives £1 million of new funding

The ICONIC trial (Improving Outcomes Through Collaboration in Osteosarcoma) started in 2019, with funding from the Bone Cancer Research Trust. The trial was set up to recruit newly diagnosed patients to gather their clinical data and samples for future research. Collaboration between researchers, oncologists and pathologists across the UK has led to over 250 patients being recruited onto the study so far from 29 hospitals, including UCLH.

A follow-on study, called “Advancing ICONIC” (Ad-ICONIC), has now been funded to build on the success of the original trial. 
The new funding will allow Professor Strauss, Senior Clinical Lecturer (UCL) and Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist UCLH and her team to extend patient recruitment and use the data and clinical samples already collected to identify new targets for treatment.

Commenting on the renewed funding, Professor Strauss said: “We are so grateful to the Bone Cancer Research Trust for allowing us to take our clinical trial to the next level. With this next round of funding, we can use the patient samples provided to gain a better understanding of how the immune system affects osteosarcoma. We hope that this will help identify patients at higher risk of recurrence, and those who are most likely to benefit from new treatments.”

Dr Zoe Davison, Head of Research, Support and Information at the Bone Cancer Research Trust, said: 
“We are delighted to provide the ICONIC clinical trial with four years of additional funding. Professor Strauss and her team have made fantastic progress with the study so far, which has helped to build a comprehensive clinical database of patients and valuable blood and tissue samples. We hope that the next stage of the trial will bring us one step closer towards better treatments that will improve survival and quality of life for osteosarcoma patients.”

Further information

• Professor Sandra Strauss academic profile
• Bone Cancer Research Trust: ICONIC clinical trial
• ClinicalTrials.gov: ICONIC
• Main image: clear cell sarcoma. Wikimedia commons