£3m award for pioneering Scottish leukemia trial

UofG scientists are set to receive £3m funding to help more patients survive a rare form of blood cancer. Researchers at the University of Glasgow's Institute of Cancer Sciences have been awarded £3.1 million by Cancer Research UK to lead a pioneering study to help find new treatments for chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). In a first-of-its-kind experimental medicine programme* scientists will carry out laboratory experiments in tandem with a clinical trial to monitor how patients' cancer cells respond to a series of new experimental drugs. Taking a 'precision medicine' approach, the scientists hope that data from their experiments will help guide which drug will be most effective for individual patients. Around 50 people are diagnosed with CML in Scotland each year** and each year around 20 people in Scotland die from the disease. CML is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. Normally, blood cells are produced in the bone marrow, from a kind of 'starter cell' called a stem cell.