Cancer research team gets boost

THE number of cancer research nurses working at the Pennine Acute Trust have been boosted following an increase in patients recruited to clinical cancer trials.

In the last two years, the Trust helped eight times more cancer patients sign up to clinical research trials.

Between April, 2008 and March, 2009, 88 patients were recruited.

Over the same period two years later (April, 2010 to March, 2011), this number rose to 740.

As a result, the Trust was able to bid for funding for nine extra research staff.

Now a total of 10 dedicated cancer research nurses are working across the Trust’s four hospital sites in Oldham, Rochdale, Bury and North Manchester.

Dr Steve Woby, research and development manager at the Trust, said: “With the extra nurse support, we’ve been able to increase not just the number of studies we carry out but also the complexity of the studies.

“These extra nurses have also meant that we’ve been able to open six more haematology trials with a dedicated haematology research nurse based at our state-of-the-art haematology unit at The Royal Oldham Hospital which opened last year.

“It has also allowed the Trust to plan to open Rochdale Infirmary to cancer patients and we’re now able to recruit patients at the site.”

The Trust has also had a large increase in colorectal recruitment, with 75 patients already recruited into studies in the first three months of this year, and it is looking to do more trials for urology cancer treatments.

Prof Nigel Bundred, Clinical Lead for Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cancer Research Network (GMCCRN), said the achievement was ‘fantastic’.

He said: “It has taken a lot of hard work and dedication to make such a turnaround in their performance in such a short space of time. Thanks to this, they are opening up cancer research to new areas which previously would not have access to studies.”