Annually 45,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with blood cancer. For more than half their disease is incurable.
While treatments have improved, the benefits in clinical research does not always reach every patient.
This can happen because clinical trials often exclude older people and those with other health conditions, causing mismatches in data between clinical results and real-world patient treatment.
Our goal
We want to ensure every patient benefits from new therapies by understanding how treatments work in real-world NHS settings.
Our approach
The NIHR Leeds BRC Haematology Theme is working with the Haematological Malignancy Research Network (HMRN).
HMRN is a partnership between NHS clinicians at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and University of York researchers.
It covers a population of 4m people across 14 Yorkshire hospitals. This provides one of Europe’s most complete, unselected blood cancer cohorts to provide real-world population data to fill key evidence gaps.
Using these data, our team can:
- Map diagnosis and treatment pathways for leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma
- Evaluate new drugs and combinations across the full patient population
- Support clinicians and policymakers with evidence for treatment and service planning
Real-World Impact
When NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) first restricted access to the new myeloma drug teclistamab, many patients were left out. Our real-world HMRN analysis, shared with Myeloma UK, showed how many people were affected, helping overturn the decision and expand access to this life-extending treatment.
HMRN data reveal that median survival for multiple myeloma has doubled, from 2.2 years (2005–2007) to 4.2 years (2017–2019), following the introduction of the drug bortezomib in therapies.
Importantly, this improvement is seen even in patients over 80 years, showing that advances are benefiting older populations too.
What’s Next
Building on this foundation, NIHR Leeds BRC researchers are now:
- Analysing how frailty, age, and socio-economic factors influence treatment response and survival.
- Using advanced statistical modelling to map multiple lines of therapy and long-term care pathways.
- Navigating the way data is used in practice to ensure this world-leading dataset continues to improve patient care and inform national policy.