Milton Keynes Hospital Helps Fund New Research To Fight Cancer, England

Main Category: Ovarian Cancer
Article Date: 18 Feb 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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The Myrtle Peach Fund, a Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust registered charity, is set to work with researchers at Cranfield University to help combat early-stage ovarian and breast cancer.

The Myrtle Peach Fund works to help Milton Keynes Hospital prevent, treat and combat cervical and ovarian cancer. The charity helps patients who are at risk from or have been treated for cervical or ovarian cancer and to develop gynaecological services.

Professor Christopher B-Lynch, Obstetrics and Gynaecology Consultant and Chair of the Myrtle Peach Fund, said: "The sooner ovarian cancer is diagnosed, the easier it is to treat. If it's caught in the early "stage one" phase up to 95% of women will live for more than five years.

"At Milton Keynes Hospital we not only treat ovarian cancer, we are also at the forefront of research in the fight to prevent cancer."

Milton Keynes Hospital, through The Myrtle Peach Fund, has awarded Cranfileld Health's cancer research team a £15,000 boost to identify ways of improving immunity to combat such cancers.

The project is set to focus on whether cells of the immune system can be generated in the laboratory from stem cells. The first stage will be to identify these stem cells in the blood and the next stage will be to determine the best way to induce them to form cells of the immune system.

It is hoped that the results of the project will ultimately be of benefit in the treatment of early stage ovarian cancer and breast cancer sufferers as well as reducing the risk of infection following major surgery.

About 6,800 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the UK each year. It is the 5th commonest women's cancer after breast, bowel, lung and womb cancer. 5 out of every 100 cancers diagnosed in women are ovarian cancers.

The UK has one of the highest incidence of ovarian cancer in Europe.

Milton Keynes Hospital