AN OXFORD hospital will soon have access to millions of pounds worth of new drugs for county patients.

The Churchill Hospital, in Headington, has been named one of just 13 centres in a national clinical trial, set up by the charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

It is hoped the initiative, which was launched in response to poor survival rates for many types of leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, will signal new hope for cancer patients in Oxford.

Dr Paresh Vyas, consultant haematologist at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, is also Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research Clinical Trials co-ordinator for the area.

He said: “Being part of this clinical trials network will increase the access of blood cancer patients in Oxford to life-saving drugs and treatments.

“It offers hope to those patients who do not respond to current treatments.”

The first trials are expected to start by the end of the year.

The Oxford Cancer and Haematology Centre at the Churchill will be allocated a trials manager who will identify patients who are not responding to their existing treatments. They will also deal with the paperwork associated with setting up clinical trials for promising new drugs.

According to figures released by the charity, blood cancers are the most common cause of cancer deaths in the under 35s.

Statistics show that more than 12,000 people are dying of blood cancers each year, about 120 of whom are from Oxfordshire.

According to the charity, because there are so many different blood cancers it has often been seen as uneconomical to develop drugs for many types.

When new drugs do become available, clinical trials tend not to be set up because it is difficult to recruit enough patients at a single hospital to make them workable.

But Cathy Gilman, chief executive of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, said because trials will be linked up to other hospitals in the new national network, individual patients with even very rare blood cancers will now be able to be treated with new drugs in Oxford, rather than having to travel to get on a clinical trial suited to them.

She said: “Thanks to 50 years of investment in research by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, a lot is known about the basic biology of blood cancers.

“We are now in a position to translate this knowledge from lab bench to bedside.

“Our investment will set in place a unique infrastructure to co-ordinate world-class trials.”