Different ways of treating bowel cancer will be assessed

More than 16,000 people in the UK are killed by bowel cancer each year.

Around 2,500 volunteers are being sought to test the drug Cetuximab, to be used alongside chemotherapy.

The UK-wide research, led by a professor at Cardiff's Velindre Hospital, will give doctors important information on how to treat sufferers.

The tests are being led by Professor Tim Maughan, the director of Wales Cancer Trials, with Velindre, Singleton, Glan Clwyd, and Ysbyty Gwynedd hospitals taking part.

Prof Maughan said: "Cetuximab targets the cancer and appears to make standard chemotherapy much more effective.

"We want to find out if it can help patients to live longer and have a better quality of life."

Our main priority is to ensure that patients taking part in the trial receive the highest standard of support and care Professor Tim Maughan

Professor Maughan also said chemotherapy itself was being examined, with the aim of finding ways to make it less "arduous and tiring" for patients.

"We hope to discover that using chemotherapy intermittently will be as effective as the current continual treatment, meaning patients would be able to have a break from the treatment for recovery and holidays."

The trial is designed for people who have metastatic colorectal cancer, which means it is bowel cancer which has spread to somewhere else in the body.

During the trials, researchers will be carrying out a range of tests on people's blood and tumour samples.

The trial is being based at Velindre Hospital

Professor Maughan said they then hoped "to see whether we can predict which patients will respond best to the treatment, and who might do better with an alternative approach".

"Our main priority is to ensure that patients taking part in the trial receive the highest standard of support and care," he added.

Jola Gore-Booth, of the charity Colon Cancer Concer, said: "After nearly 50 years in which only one drug, 5FU, has been available in the treatment of advanced bowel cancer, it is very exciting that many more treatments, including cetuximab, are now able to be used to combat the disease."

A spokesperson for the charity Beating Bowel Cancer echoed this view.

"Cetuximab is one of a number of exciting new treatment options for bowel cancer patients, which we hope will be a step towards saving lives from this disease."

The research is being funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Cancer Research UK, with an educational grant from the pharmaceutical company, Merck KGaA.