Professor Jill Birch BSc, MSc, PhD

Cancer Research UK Professorial Fellow & Group Director, Cancer Research UK Paediatric & Familial Cancer Research Group.

Honorary Research Director, Children’s Services, Central Manchester & Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Honorary Research Contract, Christie Hospital NHS Trust

International Society of Paediatric Oncology/Société 

International D’Oncologie Pédiatrique[SIOP]

British Association for Cancer Research

British Society for Human Genetics

Fellow of the Linnaean Society, London

Children’s Cancer & Leukaemia

Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer – a National Group for Professionals

United Kingdom Association of Cancer Registries

Member of editorial board of “Medical & Pediatric Oncology” Wiley-Liss,Inc. 2000-2003

Cancer Research UK Paediatric and Familial Cancer Research Group (PFCRG)

Core programme for the Paediatric and Familial Cancer Research Group (PFCRG) is provided by Cancer Research UK under the title "Epidemiology, aetiology and genetics of solid tumours in children, teenagers and young adults." The programme has 4 main components:

• Ongoing basic data collection for the Manchester Childrens Tumour Registry (MCTR) and analyses of incidence and survival over a 55 year time period.
• Development of a resource on a 55 year population-based series of children with selected solid tumours and their families including data, biosamples and continuous follow-up of cases and their first degree relatives. The resource is utilised to define cancer risks and patterns in families including syndrome identification statistically, morphologically and at the molecular level. Results to date show marked differences in the genetic component between disease groups and sub-groups as measured by familial cancer clustering and presence of congenital anomaly syndromes.
• Identification, delineation and molecular characterisation of a cohort of families with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) from the UK. The purpose of this project is to analyse variations in cancer phenotype in families with germline TP53 mutations in relation to the effect of specific mutations and classes of mutation on protein structure, expression and function. We have placed particular emphasis on obtaining detailed morphology on tumours. In addition we are developing statistical approaches to estimation of cancer risks in mutation carriers in order to overcome ascertainment bias.
• Analyses of national cancer registration data to provide detailed descriptions of incidence, mortality and survival from cancer in teenagers and young adults (TYAs). Data are analysed in relation to geographical and demographic factors. Adolescent oncology is a very recently developed discipline and we have published a series of seminal papers which have provided the first substantial descriptions of cancer in TYAs. The work has been of national and international importance and is ongoing.

In addition to the core CRUK funding grants from CLIC Sargent, Teenage Cancer Trust and Christie Hospital Endowment Fund have also supported work on TYAs (now completed) and we have recently been awarded grants by the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (SDRT), Bone Cancer Research Trust (BCRT) and Children with Leukaemia (CWL) for multi-centre/international pilot studies of the aetiology of solid tumours in Children and TYAs.

All of our work is designed to be of scientific importance and to have clinical relevance.

Key collaborations in the UK are:

• The University of Oxford
• The University of Leeds
• The Institute of Cancer Research London/Sutton

Internationally key collaborations are with:

• The International Agency for Research on Cancer
• The University of California
• Berkeley School of Public Health and The University of Toronto
• Dalla Lana School of Public Health

I trained as a laboratory scientist with a PhD in Experimental Oncology. My work in radiation biology, experimental leukaemogenesis and transplacental carcinogenesis led to an interest in carcinogenesis in human populations especially in children. In April 1974 I was appointed to a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Manchester, funded by the National Cancer Institute, Washington DC. The aim of the research was to develop the records accumulated by the Manchester Children’s Tumour Registry (MCTR) as a resource for aetiological studies of childhood cancer. The MCTR sets the standard for other registries and epidemiological studies and is internationally renowned.

I have been responsible for obtaining my own personal funding and funding for MCTR staff and associated programmes of research since 1980. Particular areas of interest have included studies of the incidence and patterns of cancer and congenital anomalies in the families of children with cancer. I have become an established world authority in this field.

I am a major contributor to the national UK Childhood Cancer Study (UKCCS) which was initiated in 1992 and was director of the North West study region.

During 2003 and 2004 I chaired the European Commission (EC) Technical Working Group (TWG) on Childhood Cancer within the European Environment and Health (E&H) Consultation Process. The EC E&H strategy places emphasis on understanding links between environmental factors and priority diseases in children, including cancer. The Action Plan was formally accepted and is now EU policy.

I am also participating in international collaborations on childhood leukaemias and brain tumours. The Children’s Leukaemia International Consortium (CLIC) was initiated by a group at the University of California, Berkeley. Participants include groups from USA, France, Australia, Canada and the UK. Future combined analyses are planned through the Brain Tumour Epidemiology Consortium.

I am recognised as the national leader in the epidemiology of cancers in teenagers and young adults (TYAs) and have gained international recognition in the field. The TYA age group has been neglected hitherto but cancer is the most common natural cause of death in persons aged 13-24 years. Little is known about aetiology of TYA cancer. We have already published results of analyses of national cancer data on TYAs and have several other papers in preparation. We have recently obtained funding to continue this work. Manchester applied for the first ever chair in adolescent oncology, funded by the Teenage Cancer Trust, in open competition with other centres. I was a major contributor to the bid. Manchester was awarded the chair, with funding of £250,000 per year for 10 years from October 2005 and Professor Tim Eden was appointed. I am a member of the NCRI Teenage and Young Adult CSDG, Registry Sub-Group and the North West Cancer Intelligence Centre at the Christie Hospital has been awarded the function of creating a national database on TYAs with cancer. I am a member of the International Working Group on Adolescent/Teenage and Young Adult Oncology, appointed as lead for Registration
/Classification.

Other Current Research Projects

Genetic Epidemiology of Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS)

Familial patterns of cancer and malformation syndromes in relation to tumour phenotype and constitutional genotype in children with solid tumours childhood cancer cases with fully documented family and clinical histories and biological material.

Descriptive epidemiology of childhood cancer

Msc, PhD