LEADING surgeons will meet in the region today to discuss a proposed overhaul of cancer services.

Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, will be meeting surgeons in the radiotherapy department of South Cleveland Hospital to talk about a report from the House of Commons' science and technology committee.

Dr Kumar is a member of the committee which has stated that cancer research is underfunded, with only two centres in the country receiving significant Government support for their work.

The committee has proposed that a National Cancer Act is passed, and a statutory National Cancer Research Institute is set up to provide vision and leadership for cancer research and treatment.

The committee has also suggested a widening of clinical trials, and the setting up of a network of 12 centres of excellence for cancer research across the country.

Dr Kumar has appealed for one of these centres to be in the North-East.

He said: "Cancer has been a scourge of the human race since the earliest days and currently kills one person in four in the UK.

"One in three will be diagnosed as suffering from cancer with the incidence still rising.

"It is crucial that there is a better level of Government funding into cancer research to back the work done by voluntary bodies like the Cancer Research Council.

"The report makes a hard-hitting demand for 12 new centres of excellence to be set up across the country.

"In view of the higher incidence of cancers in this region, I would want one of those centres to be on Teesside.

"There is a lot of first-class work done by medical professionals on the wards, but there is a need for this to be matched by research opportunities.