New trial offers hope for Scots with rare cancers

A major Cancer Research UK clinical trial aiming to find effective new treatments for patients with rare forms of the disease has launched in Scotland. A major Cancer Research UK clinical trial aiming to find effective new treatments for patients with rare forms of the disease has launched in Scotland. The DETERMINE (Determining Extended Therapeutic indications for Existing drugs in Rare Molecularly-defined Indications using a National Evaluation platform) trial will match people who have rare cancers, or cancers with rare genetic faults, with existing medications already being used to treat other cancers. If the results from the trial, which is led by the University of Manchester and managed by Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development, are positive then those treatments could be quickly approved to treat other patients with the same rare cancer across the UK. Eligible patients in Scotland are now being sought to take part in the trial which is the UK's first national precision medicine trial for rare cancers. Scots will be amongst the first to be offered a place on the UK-wide trial. Principal Investigator Dr Patricia Roxburgh, of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre and University of Glasgow, said: "We are very excited in Scotland to be amongst the first in the UK to offer these targeted drugs to patients with rare cancer as part of the DETERMINE clinical trial.