SCIENTISTS in the region have developed a way of predicting the way gullet cancer spreads, leading to hopes of life-saving improvements in surgery.

It could help thousands of gullet cancer patients, including Inspector Morse actor John Thaw, who recently confirmed he has the disease.

A team at Newcastle University has tried out the new tracking system on 40 patients with great success.

By using coloured, slightly radioactive dye, the team tracked the routes of oesophageal cancer cells as they spread through the lymph gland system.

In future, it should help surgeons to target the lymph glands which are most likely to be affected.

The new technique - developed by a team funded by the Cancer Research Campaign - predicts with 95 per cent accuracy which lymph glands should be removed by surgery and which can be left alone.

Team leader Professor Michael Griffin said: "This type of oesophageal cancer we're looking at is among the fastest increasing cancers in the UK. Unfortunately, at the time of diagnosis, most have already started to spread to the surrounding lymph glands.

"Our main hope of slowing the cancer's progress is to remove the affected lymph glands, but at present it is difficult to identify the glands that need to be removed for each patient.

"Hopefully, our research will predict the spread of cancer much more accurately, allowing us to remove the affected lymph glands while leaving those that are free of cancer alone."

Professor Gordon McVie, director general of the Cancer Research Campaign, said: "Professor Griffin's work should provide valuable information about which lymph glands the oesophageal cancer is likely to have reached."