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World's largest early clinical trials unit opens in UK |
 From The Christie’s Press Release: The cancer centre The Christie in Manchester, already leading across the globe for its research, today opens the world’s largest early clinical trials unit. It is housed in a newly completed £35 million three storey building at its main site and also includes the biggest chemotherapy facility in the UK and The Christie Clinic private patients’ suite to boost its income. It is hoped the new unit will help develop new treatments for a whole range of cancers and save lives across the globe. 2,400 patients a year will be able to access the latest treatments through the clinical trials, with around 200 drug trials going on at any one time. Up to 700 chemotherapy and clinical trial patients a week will be treated in the new centre which has 70 beds and 65 treatment chairs. Along with 19 consulting rooms, special pharmacy and research laboratory, processing around 11,000 blood and tissue samples every year.
The Christie has been at the forefront of the fight against cancer for the past 100 years. Its experts were, for example, the first in the world to trial the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen in 1969 which is now saving lives across the globe. The cancer centre is also leading in Europe on personalised medicine, which is more targeted and based on the patients’ molecular features as well as type and stage of cancer. 15% of Christie cancer patients go on clinical trials, higher than the national average and the US – with patients on clinical trials experiencing better outcomes and care. The new centre also houses the biggest chemotherapy facility in the UK. Sally Dynevor with first clinical trial patient Philip Simpson and Clare Coe - first chemotherapy patient – burying the time capsule. The patients buried a photo of themselves in the capsule . First patients Philip and Claire have buried a time capsule in the centre’s atrium with Sally Dynevor to mark the opening. The capsule contains items such as a nurse’s uniform, a bottle that was found in the foundations below the centre dating back to 1875, a copy of the menu of the day from The Christie’s dining room and floor plans of the new centre. The capsule will be reopened in 2048 – the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the NHS.
Cancer Research in Manchester was officially ranked as the best in the UK in December 2008, in the five yearly national Research Assessment Exercise. 90% of the cancer research undertaken in Manchester over the past six years was assessed as internationally excellent. Christie trials are funded by Cancer Research UK, drug companies such as Astra Zeneca and the Medical Research Council. Chemotherapy treatments are funded by the NHS.
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