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

• Aetiology and genetics of paediatric and related adult-onset cancers

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