DERBY'S new cancer research centre will put the city on the world map, says the expert behind its creation.

The Centre for Excellence for Autoimmunity in Cancer is to become the home of a new blood test which will be able to detect cancer up to five years before any symptoms show.

It was launched at the Royal Derby Hospital last night and a scientific committee of experts is due to meet there today to discuss future research projects.

The centre, based in the School for Graduate Entry Medicine and Health run by the University of Nottingham at the hospital, will research methods of early cancer detection and push forward the introduction of the blood test.

The work of centre director Professor John Robertson, who is a breast cancer specialist, has led to the introduction of the world's first autoantibody blood test for lung cancer. He said: "From the first cancer cell to a person's death from the disease, the cells divide just 40 times.

"Cancerous tumours are usually detected by the time they are dividing between the 20th and 40th time. The test will pick up the presence of antibodies produced by the immune system to fight off the cancer at a much earlier stage than at present."

The test has already been trialled with people potentially susceptible to lung cancer in the USA and it is hoped that it might be launched in the UK later this year.

Professor Robertson said: "The research work at the new centre will help further this work in early diagnosis for other forms of cancer such as breast, colon and prostate.

"Having a centre of excellence in Derby will put everyone involved in this project on the world map as we engage with experts from across the globe.

"Up to now, the ability to measure the cancer specific autoantibodies in a reliable manner has eluded the scientific community."

Professor Robertson anticipates that Derbyshire people would be involved in trialling the test, alongside people from other areas.

People at potential risk from contracting cancer, such as heavy smokers and those with a family history of the disease, could be initially targeted. Surgeons and clinicians from the Royal Derby Hospital in areas such as gynaecology will be involved in the research projects.

Professor Robertson said: "We need to raise £12 million to fully fund the work we will be doing. We know that £7 million will be used for initial projects and to expand the laboratories at the centre."

Professor Peter Boyle, an internationally recognised cancer prevention advocate, said: "Using the body's immune response to cancer, we will be able to detect lung cancer long before a CT scan. The centre will help establish new, more effective screening tests for most types of cancer."

Former cancer patients in Derby have welcomed the centre, including Brian Burke, 68, of Rosedale Avenue, Alvaston. Mr Burke was diagnosed with cancer in February 2010. Doctors said that, if they had not spotted the cancer so quickly, he would have been dead in 18 months.

He said: "The sooner you can detect cancer, the better – that really is the most important thing. An early diagnosis was so important in my case and it will be in so many other people's as well."

Professor Robertson is already involved in another project at the hospital in which cancer patients in Derby will be offered potentially life-saving drugs which are not yet available on the NHS. Last October, the University of Nottingham's Academic Division of Breast Surgery, with its 12 staff, moved from Nottingham City Hospital to the Royal Derby Hospital site.