We are excited to have agreed to fund a three-year project enabling more local research into the better diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
Rosemere have spent £32,590.18 on freezer units and other equipment needed to set up a Cardiothoracic and Biofluid Research Bank, which will be housed within the cellular pathology department at the Royal Preston Hospital but will serve the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria.
The research bank will collect tissue, blood, urine and saliva from patients who have agreed to donate their samples, and are already undergoing lung cancer treatment at Blackpool Victoria Hospital – Lancashire and South Cumbria’s specialist cardiothoracic disease (heart/lung) centre, which undertakes lung cancer surgery on patients from across both counties.
Local consultants and university scientists will then apply to the bank for gifted specimen samples to help them in their research to identify new treatments and diagnostic tools. The research bank, which it is hoped will be self-financing by the time our charitable support ends, will also make samples available nationally at cost to pharmaceutical and other UK research centres.
Blackpool-based consultant histopathologist Dr Danielle Bury, pictured, who applied for the funding, said: “Lung cancer is the UK’s third most common cancer with rates of the disease higher in the North West than in other parts of the country. We also have a higher than national average lung cancer death rate.
“The development of a tissue and biofluid bank to assist with and facilitate an increase in local level lung cancer research, given its regional prevalence, will therefore be invaluable to improving patient outcomes in the future.”
Dr Bury added: “It will also improve links between our local hospitals and universities, encouraging the development of research interests, and increase the visibility of the region as leading in cancer research.”
Thanks to kind support from our donors and fundraisers, we have been delighted to give this money to this project to push forwards in the fight against lung cancer.
