05 Nov Bowel Cancer UK Launch Appeal to Boost Surgical Research in Scotland

Firstly, a huge thank you to Scotland’s Life Sciences Dinner & Annual Awards for partnering with us. It’s an incredible opportunity for the charity to raise awareness of bowel cancer and our work to world leaders in life sciences.

Bowel cancer is Scotland’s second biggest cancer killer with 1,600 people losing their lives every year. However it shouldn’t be because it is treatable and curable especially if diagnosed early.

Over 26,000 people living in Scotland today have been diagnosed with bowel cancer – it’s the third most common cancer in the country.

Surgery is the most common treatment for the disease and central to curing bowel cancer, yet investment in surgical research is sorely lacking.

We’re playing a pivotal role to change this. Together with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh we have launched a £430,000 fundraising appeal for surgical bowel cancer research to establish Scotland’s first Colorectal Cancer Surgical Research Chair.

The Research Chair will perform an important part in driving forward the surgical clinical trial agenda for bowel cancer. They will be a surgeon, a leader in their field and work with other researchers and surgeons across the UK to discover the best surgical treatments for bowel cancer.

This will be crucial to develop more effective and personalised life-saving treatments, standardise surgery and care for patients regardless of where they live and minimise side-effects for everyone who has an operation.

Clinical trials are vital for translating potential treatment developments from research ideas to new drugs, diagnostic tests and surgical treatments for patients. Over the years surgical clinical trials have had a huge impact on improving the outcomes for people with bowel cancer.  Most recently, we have seen great advances in using drugs and surgery in combination to help shrink the tumours to a size that makes surgery more likely to be effective at curing patients. Only surgical clinical trials offer us the evidence to know this is safe and effective.

The partnership will support the position for four years, after which time it will be funded by the hosting university. The Chair will lead, support and help drive forward:

• New and innovative surgical treatments for bowel cancer patients that are more effective and personalised
• Partnerships to increase the number of surgical clinical trials for bowel cancer patients in Scotland
• Strategies to recruit more patients into existing surgical clinical trials

We’re the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity. We’re here to stop people dying of the disease but we can’t achieve this alone.

Join us at Scotland’s Life Sciences Dinner & Annual Awards, where you will have the opportunity to find out more about the project and donate to our appeal. We’d be delighted to speak to any individuals or companies that might like to support our appeal through a donation or charity fundraising partnership.

Join us. Take action. Because you can help save lives. Today.

Contact Jo Paulson for more information about the appeal.