14.04.15
Precision medicine programme for bowel cancer launched
A £5m stratified medicine programme to help personalise bowel cancer treatment by matching patients to the most effective therapies has been launched today.
Jointly funded by Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, the S-CORT Consortium will use the latest genome-based technology to analyse samples collected from more than 2,000 patients to uncover the complex biology of bowel cancer.
Researchers will then use this information to precisely match the right treatment to the right patient.
Professor Tim Maughan, Cancer Research UK clinician at the University of Oxford and head of the S-CORT Consortium, said: “Bowel cancer survival has more than doubled in the last 40 years. But there’s still a lot more work to do. Recognising this challenge, we have brought together key partners from the UK and Europe in this consortium.
“Based on strong evidence from our previous work and generating new data from over 2,000 individuals, we’ll identify ways to tailor treatment and ensure patients receive the drugs and other therapies that will benefit them the most, and make a significant difference to their chances of beating this common disease.”
It was noted that more than 41,500 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK each year, with treatment varying on the type and size of tumours.
Professor Mark Lawler, chair of Translational Cancer Genomics, Queen’s University Belfast, said: “This precision medicine approach can maximise the effectiveness of both existing and brand new treatments while helping to minimise side effects, to improve survival and quality of life for our patients.
“Additionally, our health economic analysis will allow us to measure the benefit we can deliver for the NHS and the UK economy.”
S-CORT is a consortium made up of the following partners:
- University of Oxford
- Queen’s University Belfast
- University of Birmingham
- University of Leeds
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
- MRC Clinical Trials Unit
- Kings College London
- University of Aberdeen
- University College London
- Almac
- Astra Zeneca
- Glaxo Smith Kline
- Beating Bowel Cancer
- Northern Ireland Cancer Research Consumers Forum
- European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer
- Cardiff University
- Ku Leuven
- European Alliance for Personalised Medicine
- The University of Manchester
- European CanCer Organisation
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