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Bowel cancer survival increases in research-heavy hospitals

Tuesday 25th October 2016
Bowel cancer patients may be more likely to survive if they are treated in a hospital where lots of biomedical research takes place. Image: Zoran Zeremski via iStock
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Bowel cancer patients who are receiving treatment in hospitals where research is prevalent are likely to survive for longer periods, highlighting the value of the work of biomedical scientists.

A new study carried out at the University of Leeds has found that people diagnosed with bowel cancer are more likely to beat the disease if they are treated in a healthcare facility where lots of medical research is taking place, even if they themselves are not involved in clinical trials.

Regardless of whether bowel cancer patients were involved in biomedical research, there was a 4 per cent increase in the likelihood of them still being alive five years after their diagnosis when compared to patients with the same disease who were treated in hospitals where no trials were taking place.

Furthermore, those receiving cancer treatment in research-active facilities were also more likely to survive operations, with 6.5 per cent recovering from surgery in comparison to 5 per cent of patients in hospitals where little or no research occurred.

Researchers believe this may be due to the higher level of expertise that medical professionals have in hospitals where clinical trials are regularly conducted.

Study co-author Matt Seymour, a professor of gastrointestinal cancer medicine, commented: "We have long known that clinical research is crucial for discovering better treatments to help future generations of patients, but this study tells us something new.

"It shows that, by getting involved in research trials, hospitals may 'up their game' and provide better care for all the patients they treat even in the short term, long before the results of those trials are known."

He added that although a 4 per cent increase in survival rate may seem small, this equates to approximately 1,600 lives being saved each year, as it is believed some 40,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every 12 months in the UK.

Written by Martin Lambert

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