Research priorities in supportive care for children and young people with cancer

Posted on 1 December 2025

The Candlelighters Supportive Care Research Centre (CSCRC), a £1 million partnership launched two years ago between the Yorkshire-based children’s cancer charity Candlelighters and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), is leading the drive to improve the experience and outcomes of children undergoing cancer treatment.

Central to this work are the Patient Family Involvement Research Groups, where children, young people, and their families meet with researchers to guide the focus and design of vital supportive care studies, supported by a team from the CRD. They provide a platform for those with direct experience of childhood cancer to influence research priorities.

Professor Bob Phillips, CSCRC lead, comments: "These are really interactive and thoughtful sessions, which draw on the expertise and experience of childhood cancer patients and their parents. This work helps us to improve and prioritise the research needed to improve supportive care for children and young people with cancer.”

Further details on this can be found in a recent research paper from the CSCRC team: Priority setting for supportive care research in children and young people with cancer, published in the journal Supportive Care in Cancer in November of this year.

Read more on this story via the University of York news page