CLATTERBRIDGE Cancer Centre is spearheading a £4m trial aimed at improving survival chances for people with the deadliest form of the disease.

The research will see more than 500 liver cancer patients from around the country and France given a unique combination of drugs to see if it extends life.

Professor Dan Palmer, consultant medical oncologist at the centre, is lead clinician for the trial.

He said: "Liver cancer survival rates are very low and it is a disease that is particularly prevalent in this region where there is a high burden of chronic liver disease.

"This research is aimed at determining if a new combination of drugs can prolong life.

"The fact this study is being led from Clatterbridge and managed by the Cancer Research UK Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit demonstrates the on-going commitment to finding innovative treatments for what is a deadly form of cancer."

The study, entitled TACE-3, will involve patients with a type of liver cancer called intermediate (stage B) hepatocellular carcinoma. Average survival rate with the current treatment is 18 months.

This research, funded by pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb, hopes to improve this.

The best treatment offered currently for this type of tumour is called TransArterial ChemoEmbolisation in which chemotherapy is delivered directly into the blood supply of the liver cancer.

The first patients will be recruited in September this year and the trial is due to last for five years.

The trial will be managed by Cancer Research UK Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit and is supported by the Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.

There are currently 98 studies open and recruiting patients of the trust with 53 having been opened in 2017/18, the highest ever for Clatterbridge.