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Unlike the well-known Melanoma, which is a cancer on the outside of the skin, Mucosal Melanoma cancer grows inside with no obvious identifiable risk factors and, therefore, is quite advanced once identified. In the known malignant Melanoma Cancer, now the fifth most common cancer in the UK, more than 2,000 people die from the disease each year. Mucosal Melanoma takes approximately 1% of that figure, which equates to 20 people but, undoubtedly, this number is rapidly increasing.

Doctor Crook stated, "Despite progress in treating this type of Cancer, Mucosal Melanoma remains a challenging and difficult disease to address with poor clinical outcomes. Many and varied approaches to manage this condition are urgently needed but can only come from a better understanding of Mucosal Melanoma. The aims of the research, which will be funded by donations, is to apply genomic and epigenomic analysis to the tissue archived at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. We are confident this technology combined with the clinical and pathological expertise at Broomfield Hospital and our collaborating institutions, Imperial College, London and St Luke's Cancer Centre, Guildford, will generate numerous insights into the disease and thereby open up new opportunities to treat those affected at present and in future by this particular form of Cancer."

Tim Crook and Steve Dunster have now seconded a young female doctor on to a three-year research programme into Mucosal Melanoma for her PhD and this is not NHS funded. The cost for this is £88,000