A Scots scientist has embarked on a search for a new way of diagnosing and treating bowel cancer by studying changes in the proteins found in cancer cells.

Professor Graeme Murray, based at the Department of Pathology at Aberdeen University, will use a recently developed technology called proteomics to analyse differences in the proteins that correlate with the various stages of tumour growth.

The Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) is backing him and his colleagues with a grant of more than £105,000. Mr Murray said yesterday: "Cells have a complex internal mechanism, involving many different protein molecules which carry out a wide range of functions.

"There are known to be small but important differences in the proteins found in normal and cancer cells.

"We will use a large collection of bowel cancer samples which have very good information about the stage of each cancer, and we will look for characteristic changes in the proteins of each to find out if this information and knowledge can be used as a new way to diagnose the stages of this killer cancer."

Dr Mark Matfield, AICR's scientific adviser, said: "Scotland has the highest rate of colon cancer in the UK, with about 3500 people diagnosed annually.

"Although the outlook for patients with this type of cancer has improved significantly over the past 20 years, currently only about half of patients survive five years after diagnosis."