A SPECIALIST laboratory at the University of Glasgow has developed a new cancer test for research and clinical trials that could ultimately change the way cancer medicine is delivered.

The Glasgow Cancer Tests are a suite of affordable solid tumour and blood cancer tests developed by the Glasgow Precision Oncology Laboratory (GPOL).

They are designed to be used in routine healthcare to enable doctors to offer the latest treatments and trials to cancer patients. These tests will also help scientists discover what makes cancer resistant to chemotherapy drugs, as well as provide data that will aid the development of new treatments. The tests are currently being evaluated by NHS labs in Scotland and England.

The tests are also being used in the University of Glasgow-led Precision-Panc clinical trials programme for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Professor Andrew Biankin, regius chair of surgery at the University of Glasgow and director of the GPOL, said: “The Glasgow Cancer Tests were created so that ultimately every patient with cancer could have access to the latest treatments and clinical trials.

“Our team of inventors, including Susie Cooke, Philip Beer and David Chang, have dedicated the last five years of their lives to creating the Glasgow Cancer Tests.”

The tests can be used for any cancer and will provide into what is driving a patient’s cancer, and therefore which drugs would be best to trial for that patient.