Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust has contributed to a revolutionary medical service for NHS patients, by recruiting their first cancer patient for the 100,000 genome project.

The project hopes to sequence 100,000 genomes which are NHS patients with a rare disease and patients with cancer.

The aim is to create a new genomic medicine service for the NHS, transforming the way people are cared for.

Patients may be offered a diagnosis where there wasn't one before an in time, there is the potential of new and more effective treatments.

In April 2003, the Human Genome Project was published, which included the complete genetic code of a human being, their genome.

This was the largest international collaboration ever undertaken in biology, with British scientists leading the global race to read the human genome, which is made of DNA, letter by letter, a technique called sequencing.

To bring the predicted benefits of genomics to NHS patients, the 100,000 Genomes Project was launched in 2012.

Genomics England, owned and funded by the Department of Health, was set up to deliver this flagship project which will sequence 100,000 whole genomes from NHS patients by 2017.

Its four main aims are to create an ethical and transparent programme based on consent, to bring benefit to patients and set up a genomic medicine service for the NHS, to enable new scientific discovery and medical insights; and to kick start the development of a UK genomics industry.

Dr Juan Graterol, senior reporting officer for the 100,000 Genome Project and associate medical director for quality improvement for Royal Cornwall Hospital, said: "Genomics has already started to guide and inform doctors about the best treatment for individual patients, for example with Herceptin for HER2 positive breast cancer.

"Many more cancer types, including those for whom there is hardly any successful current treatments, such as lung cancer, could be helped if only we knew which gene changes were important.

"It is important for Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust to be able to deliver cutting edge treatments and technology.

"Patients in Cornwall should have equal access to opportunities available elsewhere in the NHS. By adapting and changing the way we treat our patients we make sure that we are ready for the future.

"The Histopathology laboratory was incredibly efficient in making sure their processes and capacity was ready in time to accept the first sample.

"Clinical governance leads for urology and breast surgery have been coordinating their teams to make this a reality."