Personalised care plan to boost cancer fight

A NEW project to improve the survival of cancer patients by helping to personalise their treatment is being launched in Scotland.

Teams across the country will collect samples of tumours from every kidney cancer removed, for study in Edinburgh.

Researchers will run tests to look at the different characteristics of each cancer to discover which treatments might work best if the disease returns.

The so-called "biorepository" could mean Scottish patients are the first to benefit from experimental new drugs. It should also help make expensive cancer therapies more affordable to the NHS, as drugs will only be directed at those patients who will benefit.

If successful, it is hoped similar projects could be launched for other forms of cancer, particularly the less common and most deadly types for which there are currently few treatment options.

The researchers have been awarded 225,000 from the Scottish Chief Scientist Office to launch the project, which will see surgeons, pathologists and cancer doctors working together.

Professor David Harrison, director of the Edinburgh Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC), which is leading the project, told The Scotsman it was an "exciting way forward".

More than 700 people in Scotland are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year and about 40 per cent die from the disease. About 400 kidneys are removed every year in Scotland, which should now be collected and studied in the biorepository.

"The long-term goal is to try to get to a position where we want to personalise someone's anti-cancer therapy," Prof Harrison said.

Cancer Research UK's director of the ECMC network, Dr Sally Burtles, said: "The creation of a team of specialists will provide a huge boost to research into kidney cancer and new treatments."

Rose Woodward, patient support worker at the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer, said: "Kidney cancer is such a very difficult-to-treat cancer. Any new way to make sure we can target drugs at individual patients is going to be an absolute Godsend."

Andrew Walker, health economist at Glasgow University, said the project could lead to better use of NHS resources, and keep patients' expectations realistic.