Bid to find out impact of chemotherapy
Project aims to discover why some patients respond and other don’t
Published:
A STUDY aimed at reducing the number of cancer patients who needlessly have chemotherapy without success has been launched by Aberdeen University.
Researchers will try to discover why the treatment works for some people and not others, by analysing 42 north-east patients. Dr Russell Petty, who is leading the study, said: “We hope this will enable us to predict whether or not the patient is going to respond to chemotherapy as only half will respond and benefit from the treatment.”
Cancerous tissue will be extracted from patients and analysed, before and after chemotherapy, to see how the patient is reacting. Those found not to be responding to chemotherapy will be considered for surgery, radiotherapy or different anti-cancer drugs.
Cancer charity Friends of Anchor donated £22,000 to fund the project. Friends of Anchor fundraising manager Fiona Pearson said: “We know this will be of significant importance in helping people diagnosed with cancer in the future.”
