Capital joins cancer first

THE Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre is to take part in the UK’s first nationwide laboratory research collaborative in ovarian cancer, launched today.

The initiative – known as BriTROC (British Translational Research Ovarian cancer Collaborative) – will enable the creation of a high-quality nationwide tissue and bio specimen bank. Seven other UK centres are involved.

Ovarian cancer currently kills one woman every two hours in the UK, and British women are less likely than women in Europe and the western world to survive longer than one year from diagnosis. UK survival rates for the disease rank seventh in Europe.

The new research will enable scientists to have a better understanding of the way the disease affects different people.