ONE of the region’s biggest charities is funding a series of masterclasses for Yorkshire surgeons to learn more about performing innovative bowel cancer procedures.

Yorkshire Cancer Research wants to put an end to the significant variation in UK survival rates for post-operative bowel cancer patients.

Surgeons from throughout Yorkshire are now invited to attend the classes in Leeds, which are hosted by professor of pathology Phil Quirke. The sessions will show surgeons how to successfully perform a technique used in Germany and Japan where five-year survival is far higher than in the UK.

Professor Quirke said: “We hope to see this technique become mainstream surgical procedure in hospital theatres across the country to help drive down the significant variation in bowel cancer death rates that currently exist within our NHS hospitals.”