A MERSEYSIDE researcher has been given £168,000 to further his quest into discovering how ovarian cancer spreads.

Dr Daimark Bennett, 34, received the grant from the North West Cancer Research Fund charity, as part of a £344,000 hand-out to the University of Liverpool.

He is widely considered to be one of the most promising researchers in his field.

The three-year project will look at the role of proteins in the spread of ovarian cancer, dubbed the “silent killer” because of the difficulties in early detection.

Ovarian cancer is often only noticed when it has spread to other organs.

Dr Bennett’s team hopes researching this process could uncover a breakthrough in ways to treat the disease.

The project is deemed to be of international importance and could provide ground-breaking results which will contribute significantly to the understanding of the disease worldwide.

About 7,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year.

Almost two-thirds of that number die from the disease.

Dr Bennett said: “Spreading of tumorous cells to secondary sites within the body represents a major threat to the life of patients with the common forms of cancers.