Funding boost for cancer research
Funding boost for cancer research
2008-10-03Newsfeed
An Oxford NHS trust has been granted nearly £1 million to fund innovative cancer research.
An Oxford NHS trust has been granted nearly £1 million to fund innovative cancer research.
Charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer has donated £919,548 to Dr Anthony Kong in order to establish a research laboratory at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford.
Dr Kong will work in collaboration with the Breakthrough Toby Robins Breast Cancer Research Centre at the Institute of Cancer Research in London to investigate a type of breast cancer called HER2 positive, which accounts for about one in five of all 46,000 cases diagnosed each year in the UK.
This work is part of the charity's Clinical Researcher Programme, which aims to bridge the gap between laboratory research into breast cancer and the patients.
Dr Kong hopes to develop a new, more sensitive test to predict with greater accuracy whether a patient is likely to benefit from herceptin. This is a key treatment for HER2 positive breast cancer but not all patients benefit from the drug.
Dr Kong said: "This funding will not only enable me to investigate ways to treat patients more effectively, but will also help me translate my findings into direct benefits for patients more quickly, which I feel is absolutely essential."
Copyright © The Press Association 2008
