Cancer Research UK announces largest ever investment in Scotland

Today, Cancer Research UK announced its largest ever investment in Scotland of up to £123m.  

This funding is being provided as part of a seven-year commitment to the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute (formerly known as the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute). 

As well as supporting research into new and improved cancer treatments and diagnosis, this funding will bolster Scotland as a major global hub for cancer research on an increasingly competitive worldwide stage. It will also aid in attracting international research talent to the Institute. 

Professor Owen Sansom, who is the director of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute which is based within the University of Glasgow’s Garscube campus, said the news was “an unprecedented vote of confidence in Scotland’s scientific prowess”.    

Delivering more discovery research 

Around 34,100 people are diagnosed with cancer every year in Scotland, and while death rates have fallen in the past decade, it is vital to find new ways to tackle the disease.  

World-class researchers at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute are already studying many aspects of cancer prevention and treatment, including looking at how cancer can begin, the genetics of cancer and how the immune system responds to cancer.  

Now, this funding will help to underpin new long-term discovery research exploring how cancers develop, grow and spread, with the aim of finding new ways to screen for the disease and develop new treatments.  

It will also support major studies into specific types of cancer which have a big impact on Scotland’s population, including liver, pancreatic, bowel and lung.  

Finding new treatment targets 

One example of the cutting-edge research already being carried out at the Institute is a recently published study on imaging in cancer.   

The study, led by Professor Owen Sansom, used a combination of mass spectrometry technologies, which help to analyse which types of molecules are present in a sample, and imaging techniques to study bowel cancer. 

This helped to pinpoint an enzyme called adenosylhomocysteinase (AHCY) which appears to be key to the growth of bowel cancer. Importantly, when the team suppressed this enzyme in mouse cell models of bowel cancer, they saw that cancer growth slowed down.  

The researchers hope that AHCY could be a target for new treatments which may help stop or even prevent the growth of bowel cancer in the future.   

Building excellence in Scotland 

This funding award follows a comprehensive review of the Institute led by an independent panel of international cancer experts.    

In recognition of the success of the Institute as a national centre of excellence, and to enable wider global recognition, the facility – formerly known as the Beatson Institute – will have the new title of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute.  

Cancer Research UK invests around £33m in Scotland each year, including the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and grants awarded to research groups at universities across Scotland.    

The charity also funds Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMCs) in Glasgow and Edinburgh. These form part of a network of 17 ECMCs across the UK which deliver clinical trials of new experimental treatments in patients in conjunction with local NHS facilities.   

“This recognition of the hard work and determination of our researchers to find new ways to tackle cancer, as well as improve current treatments, is a major boost for both future cancer patients in Scotland and for the newly titled Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute,” added Professor Sansom.