World-Leading Cancer Research Centre Opens At QUB

Belfast is today the centre of the world in terms of cancer research as a new £25m research centre is officially opened.

Senator George Mitchell – who among other things helped to broker the current N I peace process – will be doing the honours when he opens the Centre of Excellence in Cancer Research which will house more than 300 researchers from across the world. The focus will be on new methods of prevention, treatment and diagnosis.

"This new centre places Northern Ireland in the front line of the worldwide crusade to tackle cancer," said Senator Mitchell, who is also the university's Chancellor.

"The international dimension of the centre's work is crucial. Cancer doesn't recognise boundaries or geographical frontiers," he commented.

An international science meeting is also taking place at Queen's to mark the centre's opening with scientists from Northern Ireland and India set to discuss new ways of fighting cancer during a two-day event.

It follows the establishment of an international research partnership to develop new ways of understanding and treating the disease between Queen's and the Indian equivalent.

The agreement was signed earlier this month between Queen's University Belfast and the Ministry of Biotechnology, Government of India.

It involves top cancer specialists from the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi and Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University.

The opening of the new research centre – which is located adjacent to the Regional Clinical Cancer Centre – follows the opening of that £60m facility at Belfast City Hospital last year.

It took over from the existing regional centre in Belvoir Park Hospital, which was closed soon afterwards.

The Cancer Centre offers high-tech suites for patient care with an 84-bed facility located on the site of the former Jubilee Maternity Hospital, and is linked to the main Belfast City Hospital tower block.

(BMcC)