Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust has contributed to a revolutionary medical service for NHS patients, by recruiting their first cancer patient for the 100.000 genome project.

The project hopes to sequence 100,000 genomes from around 70,000 people, who are NHS patients with a rare disease (plus their families), and patients with cancer.

The aim is to create a new genomic medicine service for the NHS, transforming the way people are cared for. Patients may be offered a diagnosis where there wasn’t one before and in time, there is the potential of new and more effective treatments.

Dr Juan Graterol, senior reporting officer for the 100.000 Genome Project and associate medical director for quality improvement for Royal Cornwall Hospital, feels genomics has great potential to benefit patients with cancer.  

The team hope to be able to look at expanding the number of patients that may be offered the opportunity to take part in this project.