Scientist can't wait for new facility to open

WE launched our bid to help raise £10million for a new research centre designed to stop cancer in its tracks last week.

The Beatson Pebble Appeal is off to a fantastic start - but we need your help.

Today, we talk to one of the scientists who will work in the state-of-the-art facility about why it is desperately needed . . .

WHEN she was a child, growing up on the South Side of Glasgow, Karin Oien used to ask why?' all the time.

"Now I still get to do that AND I get paid for it," she laughs. "As long as I can find out the answers..."

Finding out the answers - in this case, about what causes cancer and how to stop it in its tracks - is what Dr Oien and her colleagues will do in the new Beatson Translational Research Centre.

The unit is at the heart of the Beatson Pebble Appeal, a £10million fundraising campaign supported by the Evening Times.

It will bridge the gap between scientific research, being done at the Beatson Institute, and clinical treatment, carried out at the Beatson West of Scotland Oncology Centre.

And for Dr Oien and her team, the creation of a state of the art facility staffed by some of the world's finest scientists and researchers, doing the kind of groundbreaking work which might eventually get rid of cancer for good, is an exciting prospect.

"Translational research is not a easy concept to explain, but it is vital in the fight against cancer," she explains.

"It means that by looking at tissue samples from patients with cancer, we can speed up the processes involved in cancer research - finding new drugs, for example, or better methods of diagnosis, or prevention.

"It can also help us work out how a particular patient will respond to treatment - and all of that will lead to better therapies for patients.

"We depend greatly on patients agreeing to take part in clinical trials, at all stages of their treatment, and letting us study their tissue samples."

Dr Oien is a pathologist, specialising in gastro-intestinal and liver disease.

She is also a scientist, working in the University of Glasgow's Beatson laboratories on leafy Garscube Estate in the north of the city.

"People tend to think all pathologists do is cut up dead bodies but in fact, we spend almost all of our time dealing with specimens from living patients," she explains.

"For example, if someone has their stomach removed because of cancer, it is sent to us and we take small pieces of tissue to examine under the microscope. Then, we can make the diagnosis and see how far the cancer has spread - and that information helps the surgeon and the oncologist to treat the patient appropriately."

Advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment have been considerable in recent decades - the new Translational Research Centre will continue to add to that process.

"For example, up until the 1980s, when we were dealing with breast cancer, all we could really ask is - how big is the tumour, and has it spread to the lymph nodes?" explains Dr Oien.

"Then, in the 90s, we could look at the tumour and determine how aggressive it was. And then, with further advances, as we moved into the year 2000 and beyond, we could work out if it was going to be particularly receptive to one type of treatment - Tamoxifen - or another, Herceptin, depending on what type of tumour it is.

"Those are big advances in the space of two decades."

The centre will also assist with tumours of unknown origin'.

"Around 10 to 15% of tumours are not in the area of the body in which they started," explains Dr Oien. "For example, if someone has a liver tumour, it may have started there, or spread from the bowel, or the breast. And all of those tumours are dealt with in slightly different ways.

"So being able to work out where the tumour started means it can be diagnosed and treated more effectively. What we are moving towards, although it is still a long way off, is personalised medicine - in other words, what can I find out about how this tumour is going to behave, which will tell me how to treat it, and how the patient will respond?"

Dr Oien, 40, lives in Jordanhill with her husband, David Ross, who works in environmental protection, and their two-year-old daughter Katherine.

A lifelong fascination with science led her into medicine.

"My mum was a pharmacist, and I used to love reading her journals, and learning about different drugs being developed to sort particular problems," she explains. "I always wanted to do medical research, and my mum's advice was to do a medical degree first, which I did, at Glasgow University."

Dr Oien also completed a BSc and a PhD, both at Glasgow, and five years of specialised pathology training.

"I became interested in cancer research during my training," she says. "I think because pathologists work behind the scenes, there is a perception that we are not as interested in the patients as those who deal directly with them.

"In fact, the reverse is true."

She adds: "This way, I can be a bit of a detective, but still help people, I hope.

"The new centre is so important - to have this kind of facility here in Glasgow, with everyone under one roof working together across a whole range of disciplines, will be hugely beneficial.

"We are extremely grateful for all the support shown for the Beatson Pebble Appeal already - but there is a long way to go. I hope everyone will help us to reach our target, in whatever way they can." How you can help the appeal

THE Beatson Pebble Appeal aims to raise £10million to build the Beatson Translational Research Centre.

It will cover all cancers, including those that cause the most deaths in Glasgow such as breast, prostate, ovarian and lung cancers.

It is being developed jointly by the University of Glasgow, the Beatson Institute, Cancer Research UK and Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, and it will cost £19,200,000 to build.

So far, £9.2m has been secured from government and university funds, and, since the Pebble Appeal was launched in September, a further £4.6m has been raised.

The final push is now on to raise the rest of the money - and the Evening Times is proud to get involved.

Donate online at www.beatsonpebbleappeal.org - just click on 'donate' and follow the steps.

Send a cheque, made payable to Beatson Pebble Appeal, to Beatson Pebble Appeal, No2 The Square, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ.

If you would like to give a regular gift - just £5.21 a month over four years would mean a donation of £250 - call 0141 330 3000 or e-mail office@beatsonpebbleappeal.org

You can register for one of the fundraising events planned for later in the year, or set up your own. It doesn't matter what you do, whether it's a sponsored walk or a grand ball, a keepie-uppie competition or a car boot sale.

And remember to tell us what you are doing and why you are doing it - call 0141 302 6555 or e-mail ann.fotheringham@eveningtimes.co.uk