Carrying out world-class
research
We put just over
£6 million
towards cancer research
each week in 2006/07
We carry out world-class research to improve our understanding of cancer and find out how to prevent, diagnose and treat different kinds of cancer.
Research saves lives, which is why we support over 4,250 scientists, doctors and nurses through our research institutes and clinical centres, and through a wide variety of research grants to other organisations.
While our work has already helped to save hundreds of thousands of lives, there's still much to do – so long-term research is vital.
More funding, more projects
To keep the momentum going, we've increased the funding for our research activities to £315 million, and aim to increase it further to £400 million by 2010.
In 2006, we awarded funding for 98 new projects, worked on developing 30 potential new treatments and supported 33 new late phase clinical trials. These trials are helping doctors to work out if new ways of treating cancer are better than existing treatments.
Centres of excellence
A lot of the vital research that we fund is carried out in our research institutes. These are recognised as some of the best places for cancer research in the world.
An international panel of experts carried out a review of our London Research Institute (LRI) in July 2006. We're proud that they confirmed the LRI as one of the best basic cancer research institutes in the world.
In February 2007, Her Majesty The Queen opened our new Cambridge Research Institute. Built on the site of Addenbrooke's Hospital and with strong links to the University of Cambridge, the Institute is now home to about 200 scientists. They conduct a broad spectrum of research – from studying the biology of cancer to testing new treatments with patients in clinical trials.
Watch the official opening of the Cambridge Research Institute
(or read the transcript)
Leading-edge research
One of the key research areas we are funding – and in which we are a global leader – is the detection of small gene differences within the UK population that might be linked to cancer. Our scientists will home in on genes that might make people more susceptible to different types of cancer.
Find out more about what we do: