Royal Papworth Hospital at forefront of £2.5m research to improve lung cancer survival rates
ITV News Anglia reporter Raveena Ghattaura finds out about a major study being done at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire into lung cancer
A recovering cancer patient is backing a £2.5m-study being led by Royal Papworth Hospital to prevent future cases of the disease.
The research being done by the pioneering Cambridgeshire medical hub - which is celebrating five years at its state-of-art home - also involves NHS sites in Norwich and Chelmsford, and is being funded by Cancer Research UK.
It involves 800 people and will see medics taking blood samples from people who have or have had lung cancer, which can provide clues about whether they are at risk of new cancers developing.
Veronica Forster, 80, from Peterborough, was successfully treated for lung cancer at Papworth six years ago, and is part of the important study which includes giving a blood sample every six months.
She said: "There’s always going to be a little bit of doubt that secondary cancers may have started so there is always that little bit of fear but nothing would stop me coming in."
The patient added the ongoing quick blood tests, done at a neighbouring lab to Papworth, were reassuring.
They are carried out within two hours of a sample being taken and are processed in just over an hour.
Prof Robert Rintoul, consultant respiratory physician at Royal Papworth Hospital, said: "If you take a blood sample from someone who has had a cancer - or who has cancer - you can see the cancer DNA in the blood stream.
"Hopefully when we remove the cancer from someone there will be no cancer DNA in their blood stream.
"But if they start to develop a second cancer the DNA will start to appear again."
Research shows that lung cancer survivors have two-to-three times greater risk than the general population of developing another primary cancer in the 10 years after their first cancer was diagnosed.
The £2.5m for the study was given by Cancer Research UK in 2018 and people involved in the study hope the science will save lives by developing new blood tests to identify people at risk of developing a recurrent disease or secondary cancer, as soon as possible.
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