Aberdeen University researchers receive funding boost into study for rare cancer

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen and Queen's University Belfast have received a £280,000 boost from Blood Cancer UK.

It will know form a study looking at DNA and samples from people with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) to identify what may be responsible for causing the disease. 

MPN affects around four thousand people in the UK every year. 

Professor Lesley Anderson and her team are behind the study and they will also look at other environmental factors, such as where people live or what they do for work, which can influence developing some forms of cancers. 

She said: "This research is important as it has the potential to help increase our understanding of how MPN develops.

"Using data and samples from patients across the UK could help us prevent MPNs, improve diagnosis and develop new and better ways to treat people with the disease.

"Ultimately it could mean that people with MPNs can be diagnosed faster and given better treatments that more effectively target the cancer."

As part of the project, the will ask people from across health boards to look at interactions between genes an the environment. 

Many are unaware of the symptoms, which key signs marked as fatigue and itchiness from contact with water. 

Next month marks Blood Cancer Awareness month, ran by the charity Blood Cancer UK, as the disease is the fifth most common cause of cancer in the county.