The first Bowel Cancer UK/Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Colorectal Cancer Surgical Research Chair

Location: University of Edinburgh

This joint funding between Bowel Cancer UK and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has appointed Professor Farhat Din as Scotland’s first Colorectal Cancer Surgical Research Chair. This will help to deliver better patient care for people with bowel cancer through research.

The challenge

Surgery is the most common treatment for bowel cancer and central to curing the disease, yet investment in surgical research is low. Very few clinical trials in the UK are focused on surgery. Investing in surgical research is crucial to develop more effective and personalised life-saving treatments. It’ll also help to standardise surgery and care for patients regardless of where they live and minimise side-effects for everyone who has an operation. 

What is a research chair?

A research chair is a someone who leads in their field, with a strong track record of delivering and coordinating research. They’re given funding to allow them to dedicate more time towards research.

This means they can build a bigger research team, develop a larger programme of research, attend conferences and publish papers. They’re also able to build partnerships within the research community, and train and support the next generation of researchers.

Funding research posts such as surgical chairs is part of our work towards our goal of removing barriers to diagnosis and treatment. it also helps people to be diagnosed quickly and at the earliest possible stage, and to get the right treatment and care to every patient.

The science behind the project

Professor Din and her team will be driving forward studies and trials aimed at early detection and prevention of bowel cancer. They’ll also be developing treatment strategies that help prevent the disease.

She and her team will be focusing on these areas:

• Improving the surveillance, management and outcomes for people with genetic conditions that increase their risk of bowel cancer. She’ll do this by establishing the Scottish National Colorectal Genetics Registry
• Expanding research into how changes in surgery impact outcomes for patients
• Supporting research into how specific genetic conditions can increase someone’s risk of bowel cancer and which treatments can prevent this
• Increasing understanding of early-onset bowel cancer in people under the age of 50
• Building research engagement and collaborations between universities and the NHS, by setting up the Centre for Early Detection and Prevention Colorectal Cancer Research
  
  

What difference will this project make?

This post will help to promote and coordinate bowel cancer research across Scotland. It’ll develop more trials to improve early detection and prevention of bowel cancer, and help give patients access to the best possible treatment.

• For more information see our announcement of this post
  

• Find out more about our current research projects

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