The behaviour of cancer cells will be studied

The money from charity Cancer Research UK Scotland will finance new research projects in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

These include work on diagnosis and treatment of stomach, skin, lung and bowel cancers.

Scientists will look at whether a person's genetic make-up can help prevent cancers from forming.

About 4,000 Scots are diagnosed as having a particular form of stomach cancer every year, caused by the helicobacter pylori bacterium.

The research is aimed at understanding the disease better - so that ultimately we can prevent it or cure more of those who are unfortunate enough to contract cancer Jim Cassidy Cancer Research UK

Not everyone infected by the bacterium develops stomach cancer and the University of Aberdeen will look at the development of the disease in an effort to identify new treatments.

Researchers in Dundee will examine an inherited form of skin cancer, MSSE, caused by a damaged gene.

The condition is a very unusual form of cancer which is cured by the body itself without treatment and scientists want to know how this happens.

At the University of Edinburgh, work will be done on the process which switches genes off in cancerous cells and tumours and its connection to lung cancer.

Lung cancer has low survival rates

And a molecular study of bowel cancer and how it spreads will be undertaken by the Beatson Institute in Glasgow.

Cancer Research UK Scotland believes the work will help scientists understand the biological processes involved in the development of cancers and thus discover new treatments.

Professor Jim Cassidy, director of Cancer Research UK's department of medical oncology at the University of Glasgow. said: "This investment is targeted at groups all over Scotland who are at the cutting edge of their own fields.