Glasgow scientists have been awarded a major cash boost from Cancer Research UK to pioneer new radiotherapy technologies and techniques to help more people survive cancer in the future.

Experts from the Cancer Research UK Glasgow Centre are set to receive £3.5 million over the next five years.

Glasgow has been chosen to be one of just seven centres of excellence in a UK-wide network that will accelerate advances in radiotherapy research.

Centres will also be located in Manchester, Cambridge, Oxford, Leeds and London.

Professor Anthony Chalmers, chairman of Clinical Oncology at Glasgow University, is lead researcher for the centre.

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He said: “We are very proud that Glasgow has been awarded this grant to bring the next generation of radiotherapy treatments to patients sooner.

“The funding will transform our ability to develop new radiotherapy technologies that will help more people beat cancer, while causing fewer side effects so patients will have a better quality of life after treatment.

“An important fact about radiotherapy is that it can cure many cancers.

“In my view, this ability isn’t given enough attention."

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Cancer Research UK is investing a total of £56m in Cancer Research UK RadNet – the charity’s largest ever investment in radiotherapy research.

More than 130,000 patients in the UK are treated with radiotherapy on the NHS every year.

In Glasgow, the funding will support researchers to develop and test new radiotherapy-drug combinations and new radiotherapy techniques.

Scientists and doctors will focus on improving radiotherapy for patients with hard-to-treat cancers and cancers with poor prognosis, such as lung, brain, pancreatic, and head and neck cancers.