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Op shop raises $100,000 for lung cancer research

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Improved diagnostic techniques for lung cancer are one step closer, thanks to a $100,000 donation to local research from the Maitland Cancer Appeal Committee.

Volunteers presented a cheque to the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s Professor Phil Hansbro, which will fund work to analyse lab-grown tumours to see how they develop from early in their life cycle.

“There’s currently no good diagnostic techniques for early lung cancer,” Prof Hansbro said.

“People get diagnosed when they’re really at late stage, when they have difficulty breathing, or they get diagnosed luckily from having an x-ray for something else.”

What also makes diagnosis difficult is that up to 90% of irregularities that are found in the lungs from CT scans are actually false positives.

“To confirm that, you need to have surgery,” Prof Hansbro explained.

“If it’s 90% likely to not be a tumour, do you want to have lung surgery on the 10% chance that it is?”

The hope is that the research can identify a less invasive way to confirm lung cancer in its earlier stages, such as mutations in cells from coughed up blood, which would enable treatment to begin sooner.

Over $1 million has been given to local research by the Maitland Cancer Appeal Committee in last 10 years, with this latest donation raised through their Rutherford op shop in just 12 months.

In a touching dedication, the donation was made in the memory of long term committee volunteers Valda Knox and Dorothy Blair who both passed away last year aged 92 and 90.

Committee founder Alice Bennis paid tribute to both women.

“Each winter for the last 20 years those ladies knitted between 200 and 400 pairs of socks, which has made pure profit for us,” Ms Bennis said.

“You’ve got no idea the amount of work it takes to do those socks.”

This year the Maitland Cancer Appeal Committee is celebrating its 35th birthday.

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