Our patients may be asked to take part in a research studies as we believe this plays a vital role in advancing the treatment we deliver.

Through clinical research we can discover knowledge to help us understand the underlying genetic causes of different sarcomas and develop new treatments and cures. We're doing this by taking a sample of the sarcoma removed during surgery, extracting the DNA from it and looking for changes (mutations) in the genes within the sarcoma. We believe that sarcomas develop because of faults in how the body repairs DNA.

• Creation of Birmingham Health Partners with the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Children's Hospital helps to promote and provide facilities for clinical research
• The first Cancer Research UK Centre has been established in Birmingham, with £9m annual backing to support development and collaborative research
• £12.8m has been secured over five years to fund the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, the largest grant of its type in the UK

For further information on research at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), please see the Trust's research and innovation website.