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Scientists get £ 2 million to develop cancer imaging

07 Oct 2008 - Scientists are set for a cash boost to develop the latest cancer imaging technologies.
 
Cancer experts at Durham and Newcastle universities will receive more than £2 million over the next five years.
 
The money is part of a £50 million nationwide initiative to establish the UK as a world leader in cancer imaging research.
 
Cancer Research UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are leading the new initiative.
 
Cancer Research UK will invest up to £30 million and the EPSRC will contribute £15 million.
 
In addition, the Medical Research Council (MRC) will invest £3 million and at least £1.3 million will come from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to help improve the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
 
The Durham and Newcastle project is one of five cancer imaging research programmes to be set up across the UK.
 
The others are: The Childhood Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) at The University of Birmingham, The Royal Surrey County Hospital, The University of St Andrews and The University of Sheffield.
 
Dr Ross Maxwell, whose research is funded by Cancer Research UK, is the lead scientist for the joint Durham University and Newcastle University cancer imaging programme grant.
 
Dr Maxwell, from the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, based at Newcastle University, said: "Investing in this important area is vital for improving many aspects of a cancer patient’s journey – from detection to treatment.
 
"We will use the new funding to help us develop new cancer drugs in parallel with new scanning methods to track the way they work in the body.
 
"A team of doctors, nurses and scientists will work together developing the new imaging techniques.
 
"They will help us to identify which patients would be suitable for new drugs being developed at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research and then allow us to see if these drugs are working as they should within the patient.”
 
The research will involve the use of the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner, which has received more than two million pounds of funding from One NorthEast, and MRI scanners also based at the Newcastle General Hospital site.