We are the largest single funder of cancer research in Europe and are leading the world in finding new ways to prevent, detect and treat the disease. We receive virtually no government funding for our research. We are therefore reliant on the generosity of the public who have helped us achieve some amazing progress over the last 100 years.

Where we do research

We support around 4,500 scientists, doctors and nurses in more than 35 towns and cities across the UK. In fact 90% of all the UK's population lives no more than 30 miles from one of our research sites.

Deciding what research to fund

We fund only the best science. All of the research we fund is subject to a rigorous peer review process. You can find out more about this in our how we fund research section.

This process ensure that every penny of our scientific spend – some £333 million in 2007/08 goes toward research of the highest quality aimed at beating cancer.

How much does research cost?

Scientific research is expensive. The examples below give some sense of how much it costs to fund our work.

• £1,000 could buy around 110 digital timers - essential to allow cancer researchers to carry out precisely timed experiments.
• £54,000 could cover all the costs of funding one of our PhD students for around 18 months. At Cancer Research UK, we nurture the talent of young scientists, helping to secure the next generation of cancer rsearchers.
• £90,000 could fund around one year of a national clinical trial to find the best dose of radiotherapy to use when treating patients with a type of lymphoma - cancer of the immune system.
• £250,000 could buy a DNA sequencer, helping scientists to identify potential genes associeted with increased risk of cancer, and to detect changes within those genes that could be involved in the disease.
• £900,000 is the average cost of running a lab for a year at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute.

Find out more

Our Annual Review 2007/08 – contains information about Cancer Research UK's financial performance over the past year.

Our Scientific Yearbook 2007/08 – showcases a broad range of our scientific activities through articles and short reports, as well as and factual information about the charity.