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Edinburgh

Identifying people who have a high risk of bowel cancer

Bowel cancer is the UK’s third most common cancer and almost 3,500 new cases are diagnosed each year in Scotland alone. Professor Malcolm Dunlop at the University of Edinburgh is searching for the genetic and environmental factors that cause this disease.

He is screening the majority of Scottish bowel cancer patients diagnosed before the age of 55 for faults in known bowel cancer genes. This will help identify families where other members may be at high-risk of developing the disease. These people can then be offered help to reduce this risk.

Recently, Professor Dunlop led an international collaboration that identified a common gene fault that may be involved in the development of up to 10 per cent of bowel cancers.

Improving quality of life for cancer patients

Professor Michael Sharpe runs the Psychological Medicine Group, part of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Cancer Research Centre at the Western General Hospital. His team aims to improve the detection and management of depression, anxiety and other conditions that affect the quality of life for people with cancer.

Improving treatment of children's cancer

Childhood cancer is quite rare, affecting around 1 in 500 children under the age of 15 in Britain. The small numbers of patients, particularly those with rare childhood cancers, mean that collaborative clinical trials are essential if treatment is to rapidly improve.

We fund the clinical trials work of the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG). The group co-ordinates the care of virtually all the UK’s children with cancer, ensuring they receive the most up-to-date treatments. Children involved in clinical trials tend to do better and the CCLG has greatly improved recruitment in recent years. The CCLG runs trials at 21 paediatric centres throughout the British Isles, including the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

Find more of our research in Scotland.