Nearly 32,000 people are diagnosed in Scotland with cancer, so the recent announcement of a £4.5 million investment into cancer research at Glasgow University is a significant boost to the centre’s work. Based with the university, the Cancer Research UK Glasgow Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) is working tirelessly to make breakthroughs in the treatment of cancers.
The Glasgow CTU helps bring the newest scientific breakthroughs and developments to patients, based on its work in the design, analysis and delivery of clinical trials to help shape the cancer research landscape not only in the UK but internationally as well.
New treatments
Current trials being undertaken at the Clinical Trials Unit are aiming to help pinpoint new treatments for prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and brain tumours. All clinical trials are thoroughly tested before they are put in place with a group of patients to establish if a new procedure or treatment is safe, whether it has any undesirable side effects, helps patients feel better and if it delivers better results than the current treatment plan. To find out more about clinical trials, the Cancer Research UK website has detailed information to review here http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial.
Eligibility criteria
Each clinical trial will have different eligibility criteria based on what the trial itself is trying to discover, and based on this, it may be that a control group of people from a specific area or with a common medical background may be needed alongside patients with the condition being researched. There are paid medical trials as well as voluntary clinical trials, so if you are interested in taking part in a trial you can review your options from sites such as http://www.trials4us.co.uk/.
One in two of us will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during our life so the research undertaken in units such as that in Glasgow will help deliver better treatment for children and adults across the UK. Cancer survival rates have happily doubled since the 1970s thanks to investment in research. The investment in Scottish cancer research will enable the team to investigate more discoveries and the best ways to translate these into specific treatments for each cancer. Being able to personalise chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments for patients is the gold standard for cancer researchers to reduce side effects and enable better treatment for each tumour.
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