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15/09/2015
Researchers To Help Develop New Treatments For Pancreatic Cancer
Researchers at Queen's University in Belfast are to help develop new treatments for pancreatic cancer.
£2.9 million has been secured under the US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership Programme. It will bring together world-leading experts in drug delivery and cancer research at Queen's, Dublin City University and the University at Buffalo.
The five-year programme will focus on the development of 'nanomedicine' in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, for which current treatment options are limited. The transatlantic team aim to develop miniscule technology – so tiny that it is invisible to the naked eye – to deliver drugs directly to cancer sites and thereby improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments.
In Northern Ireland, during 2009-2013 an average of 220 cases of pancreatic cancer were diagnosed each year. The five-year survival rate for patients diagnosed in 2004-2008 was 5%.
Queen's University Professor Christopher Scott, Director of Research, Molecular Therapeutics Cluster in the School of Pharmacy, who is leading the project, said: "Pancreatic cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK. Many chemotherapies could be more effective, and induce fewer side effects, if they could access the tumour more easily; this is what we aim to examine in this project. By working in partnership with researchers in New York and Dublin it will allow us to generate valuable discoveries and innovations which can move our work out of the laboratory and towards clinical trials.
"This is another example of the commitment of researchers and staff at Queen's to advancing knowledge and changing lives."
(CD)
£2.9 million has been secured under the US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership Programme. It will bring together world-leading experts in drug delivery and cancer research at Queen's, Dublin City University and the University at Buffalo.
The five-year programme will focus on the development of 'nanomedicine' in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, for which current treatment options are limited. The transatlantic team aim to develop miniscule technology – so tiny that it is invisible to the naked eye – to deliver drugs directly to cancer sites and thereby improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments.
In Northern Ireland, during 2009-2013 an average of 220 cases of pancreatic cancer were diagnosed each year. The five-year survival rate for patients diagnosed in 2004-2008 was 5%.
Queen's University Professor Christopher Scott, Director of Research, Molecular Therapeutics Cluster in the School of Pharmacy, who is leading the project, said: "Pancreatic cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK. Many chemotherapies could be more effective, and induce fewer side effects, if they could access the tumour more easily; this is what we aim to examine in this project. By working in partnership with researchers in New York and Dublin it will allow us to generate valuable discoveries and innovations which can move our work out of the laboratory and towards clinical trials.
"This is another example of the commitment of researchers and staff at Queen's to advancing knowledge and changing lives."
(CD)
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