Tuesday 27 July 2010

The Latest Skin Cancer Treatment



Non-malignant skin cancer is one of the world's fastest growing diseases. Two university professors, Robert Ferguson from Dundee University and Professor Ifor Samuel from St Andrews University, founded Ambicare Health with the intention of tapping into the growing market for photodynamic therapy (PDT). This involves a drug being applied to the skin and then activated by a light source, causing it to destroy the cancer cells.

Normally the therapy has to be done in hospital but Ambicare has developed a wearable drive, called the Ambulight,which allows patients to get on with their normal lives.

The company has just completed a £1.7m fund-raising exercise to enable it to start rolling out the product around the UK and overseas. Supporters include Longbow Capital, the Scottish Venture Fund run by Scottish Enterprise and publishers D C Thomson.

It's good to see D C Thomson, the family-owned publishing business, support this venture. When many other newspapers are losing readership, D C Thomson continues to show there is money in journalism.

This treatment for skin cancer has so many benefits, not least the avoidance of an in-patient hospital stay. More people having this disease will be cured without the risk of contacting one of the serious hospital acquired infections. Anything which keeps us away from hospitals is a winner.

2 comments:

Dramfineday said...

Good stuff and I hope it helps many, many people!

subrosa said...

Me too Dram and it's good to know it's a Scottish innovation, funded by Scotland.

How often do we give away our research because we won't fund it?

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