Projects to help beat cancer will share £50k

GRANTS totalling £50,000 have been given to five projects helping to develop potential cancer treatments.

Leicestershire charity Hope Against Cancer will be working with doctors, professors and other research staff to provide specialist research equipment and resources in a number of areas.

The projects to benefit from the £50,000 pot include: the development of a liquid biopsy approach to early detection of head and neck cancers; the evaluation of drug effectiveness in breast cancers; the advancement of drugs for mesothelioma prevention to clinical trials stage; the identification of difunctional cells in patients with lymphoma; and the therapeutic screening of patients with colorectal cancers.

One of the ultimate aims is that the money will result in the availability of new drugs and improved treatments which can be trialled at the Hope Cancer Trials Centre, at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Nigel Rose, chief executive of Hope Against Cancer, said: “The areas receiving our funding are what we refer to as pump-priming projects.

“They are the beginnings of new approaches which explore the understanding of cancers, a step which is vital if we are to develop better treatments.

“Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find funding for these early stages, so the £50,000 will actually be helping our partners to expand knowledge and test ideas that they otherwise would be unable to do.

“It is the Hope supporters and fund-raisers across the region who deserve the greatest thanks for enabling this essential research to happen, allowing us to continue our local fight against cancer.”