One of the biggest lung cancer studies ever mounted will be officially launched tomorrow.
The nine-year, £14million project, involving 850 patients from across the UK, will examine exactly how the disease mutates, adapts and becomes resistant to treatments.
Lung cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer and the hope is that by better understanding its make-up, scientists will be able to devise tailor-made treatments to fight it.
Using new genetic-sequencing techniques, the experts hope to identify changes at different stages of the disease’s progress and pinpoint where to target therapies to save lives.
The scientists taking part in the Cancer Research UK-funded programme are gathering for the official launch tomorrow and the first patients will come on stream next month.
The lead researcher on the TRACERx (Tracking Cancer Evolution through Therapy) project in Scotland is Dr Marianne Nicolson, from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
She said the team, which includes more than 65 oncologists, pathologists, laboratory researchers and technicians based in hospitals, universities and research institutes across the country, were determined to turn around survival rates for the most common cause of cancer death in the UK.
Dr Nicolson is also encouraging everyone to support this and other groundbreaking work being funded by Cancer Research UK. The charity wants people to make a stand against cancer with a day of determined fundraising on Friday, October 18.
Supporters can choose exactly how, when and where they make their stand – from the top of a mountain to a bath of baked beans – but all the money they raise will go towards lifesaving research.
Dr Nicolson said: “Most of us know people whose lives have been touched by cancer and this is an opportunity to stand up and help more people survive the disease.”
The inaugural Stand Up To Cancer day last year raised £8million.
Linda Summerhayes, Cancer Research UK’s spokeswoman in Scotland, said: “Thanks to research, more people are surviving cancer than ever before, but there’s still so much more to do.
“It’s not technology or knowledge that is holding back our fight against cancer – it’s funding.”
For more information go to standuptocancer.org.uk