Additional grants from the Cancer Foundation to KI for clinical studies

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– In Sweden, it has become difficult for researchers to find funding for clinical studies and to get patients to participate in research. “I’m proud that we can now make this investment through very large grants to some really powerful research projects,” says Malin Sund, Chair of the Research Committee at the Cancer Foundation.

The goal is to have more effective treatments so that more cancer patients can be cured or live a long time with a good quality of life. When the application round ended, 48 applications were received, and the Cancer Foundation’s Research Committee, with the help of a group of international experts, selected 10 projects deemed the most promising.

Of the 10 applications now receiving grants, 6 are managed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. KI researchers Karl Johan Malmberg and Pernilla Lagergren have received some of the larger grants.

Thanks to this private investment and previously awarded grants, this year the Cancer Foundation decided to award research grants equivalent to a record amount of SEK 980 million.

Immunotherapy in a new way

Cancer researcher Karl-Johan Malmberg leads an immunotherapy research project that will receive SEK 19 million. Today, there are treatments that activate T cells in the immune system to attack cancer.

Carl Johan Malmberg now wants to take this research a step further and try to train another type of immune system cell called natural killer cells. This has the potential to help more cancer patients.