Yeovil doctors involved in cancer tests (From Yeovil Express)

Yeovil doctors involved in cancer tests

1:30pm Tuesday 22nd January 2008

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DOCTOERS based at Yeovil District Hospital are taking part in one of the world's largest lung cancer clinical trials investigating how a blood-thinning drug might help prevent blood clots in lung cancer patients.

The Cancer Research UK funded trial is investigating whether a drug called Dalteparin can treat this problem and whether the drug may also improve the survival of lung cancer patients.

People with lung cancer are at an increased risk of blood clots in their veins because of chemotherapy, surgery, inactivity or the lung cancer itself. Clots can be dangerous and even fatal if they dislodge and travel to the lungs. They can also cause pain in the chest and breathlessness.

Dalteparin - also known as Fragmin - may also have an anti-cancer effect and lead to an improvement in quality of life and survival rates after the lung cancer diagnosis because it is thought that the blood thinning drug may affect how cancer cells spread through the blood stream, but this is not known for sure.

This trial is designed to help answer these questions and to identify any possible side effects of using the drug in this situation.

The trial, which was created by Dr Fergus Macbeth and Dr Simon Noble at Velindre Hospital in Cardiff, is hoping to recruit 2,400 patients and is due to involve between 50 and 100 centres around the UK.

Sue Bulley, who heads up research and development at Yeovil Hospital and is working on the trial, said: "We are pleased to be helping with this major UK-wide trial by recruiting people in Somerset. We are all working hard to find better and more effective ways to treat this difficult illness."

Kate Law, Cancer Research UK's clinical trials director, added: "Lung cancer remains the second most common cancer in the UK.

"It is vital we continue to research new treatments and also improve existing treatments for the disease.

"Clinical trials like this are important in helping to do this and developing better treatments for patients."

For more information on the trial, please visit the www.cancerhelp.org.uk or call the Cancer Research UK cancer information nurses on 0808 800 4040.

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