A NEW research study is part of a £7m investment by a cancer charity helping to get longer survival rates for people in Bradford and other towns and cities across Yorkshire.

Yesterday Yorkshire Cancer Research announced the project which will determine which parts of the heart are more susceptible to damage from radiotherapy. It is one of five groundbreaking initiatives the charity hopes will ensure 2,000 more people in the region will survive cancer every year by 2025.

Researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which treats cancer patients from Bradford, will join forces with The University of Manchester and specialist cancer centre The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester in the £272,142 study to find ways of reducing any heart damage which could improve one-year survival rates by around 10 per cent.

The other four projects will include a £486,014 health check project which will involve a new online health questionnaire being tried out in parts of the region using a traffic light system to determine whether people taking part in it, need to get more medical advice to head off a late cancer diagnosis.

A charity spokesman said cancer outcomes tend to be worse in areas of high deprivation including some parts of Bradford because of higher levels of unhealthy behaviours like smoking, drinking and poor knowledge, meaning diagnosis often comes late and through emergency routes like A&E or being referred by GPs.

The charity will also spend a further £5.2m investment on the UK’s largest lung cancer screening trial which will have mobile vans travelling out to communities in partnership with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

In addition, the charity will put £712,501 into a community health campaign in Hull encouraging smokers and ex-smokers to go for health checks.

And Hull will also get a £347,666 share of the investment to focus on improving participation in bowel scope screening.

Dr Kathryn Scott, Interim Chief Executive at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said: “We are extremely excited to announce this significant investment in lung cancer and early diagnosis. These projects are the result of an extensive process, involving expert advice from the country’s best researchers, to determine how the charity can have the biggest possible impact on cancer survival rates in Yorkshire.”

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