Research undertaken through a HSC R&D Division Doctoral Fellowship awarded to Dr Gareth Irwin has shown that looking for a combination of genetic changes, including genes that are associated with DNA repair in cancer cells, was able to predict which patients responded to chemotherapy and those that did not. These tests could be developed to help ensure that patients are given the right cancer drugs that will work for them and that we do not give potentially harmful cancer drugs with significant side-effects to patients that will not benefit from these drugs. One of these tests, called the DDRD test, is now being tested in a clinical trial in the Belfast City Hospital.