THE pioneering Bolton professor who developed a revolutionary brain tumour treatment has vowed to continue to find new drugs to fight cancer.

As reported in later editions of last night's BEN, former Bolton School pupil Professor Malcolm Stevens was instrumental in the development of a new brain cancer drug - Temozolom-

ide.

The drug, now registered as Temodal, will be available on the NHS from next month, the Cancer Research Campaign announced yesterday.

It has been hailed as the most important breakthrough in brain cancer treatment for 20 years.

However, during yesterday's launch fears were raised that some health authorities might resist using it because of its cost - between £1,000 to £2,000 per patient per month.

Marvellous

Today a spokesman for Wigan and Bolton Health Authority said they would need to carry out detailed investigations before making a decision on its possible use for local patients.

Prof Stevens told the BEN: "It's marvellous that years of work by a host of scientists and doctors has finally come to fruition.

"And it's humbling when you think that a drug which we hope will eventually benefit thousands of patients began with money raised by Campaign volunteers through street collections and coffee mornings."

He added: "In many ways this is now water under the bridge, because we are busy working on the next potential cancer breakthrough. The work must go on."

Avid Bolton Wanderers fan Prof Stevens is now head of the Cancer Research Campaign's Laboratories at Nottingham University and lives in Nottingham.

He lived in Heaton and was a pupil at Bolton School between 1948 to 1957 before he studied pharmacy at Nottingham University.

The drug Temodal was among a batch of chemicals which were synthesised by Prof Stevens at Aston University in Birmingham in the late 1970s.

In a deal between the Cancer Research Campaign and pharmaceutical company Schering Plough, substantial royalties from sales of the drug will be pumped back into further cancer research.

In trials, the drug, which can be taken in capsule form, not only boosted survival but also cut the debilitating side-effects associated with conventional treatment.

Work is now being carried out to see if it can treat malignant skin cancer.

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