Cancer Research UK has hosted conferences on early diagnosis research for more than 15 years, as well as smaller topical events. These events have covered a broad range of early diagnosis themes and have attracted people from across the early diagnosis community.
In June and July 2026, we hosted a series of events designed to accelerate progress on the most pressing issues in earlier cancer diagnosis, at a moment of significant political change and opportunity.
We were joined by approximately 300 researchers, policy leads, health system leaders, health professionals, and third sector representative across three events, which sought to address the following critical questions:
How can primary care successfully optimise and innovate symptomatic risk assessment over the next 10 years?
What are the implications of the UK National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) new position on surrogate outcomes in cancer screening?
How can we better navigate the rapidly expanding AI landscape?
Key takeaways and insights
Primary care and earlier diagnosis: evidence into action over the next decade
On 15 June 2026, we hosted an event to explore the critical role of symptomatic recognition and management in primary care, and its contribution to improving earlier diagnosis.
Our event write-up contains presentation summaries, practical insights and takeaways.
Understanding surrogate outcomes in cancer screening trials: implications for screening policy and practice
On 17 June 2026, we held a session for health system leaders and policymakers to raise awareness of the UK NSC's position statement on surrogate outcomes in cancer screening trials.
Our event report summaries the key discussion points, themes and next steps from the session.
Navigating AI for cancer diagnosis: evidence-based decision making
On 2 July 2026, we hosted a webinar to explore how health systems can better navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape for cancer. Our panel of expert speakers drew on real-world initiatives and activities to help illustrate how we can appraise and adopt AI technologies that promise to support earlier cancer diagnosis in a more consistent and evidence-based way.
Our event report provides a summary of key themes, questions and discussion points from the webinar.
You can also find a recording of the webinar below:
Explore older events
We were thrilled to welcome 330 delegates to Cancer Research UK's Sixth in-person biennial Early Diagnosis conference in June 2024 at The Eastside Rooms in Birmingham.
The conference brought together the cancer community in the UK, and showcased the latest early diagnosis evidence around the theme 'Driving Evidence into Practice'.
In May 2023, we hosted an online event, Implementing risk in the diagnosis of cancer: optimising the current and innovating the future.
Chaired by Professor Jon Emery, the event showcased some of the latest research into ‘risk’ and its potential to support earlier cancer diagnosis – a key theme in CRUK’s Early Detection and Diagnosis of Cancer Roadmap. In a series of insightful talks and Q&A sessions, our expert panel discussed opportunities to optimise how risk prediction and stratification techniques are currently researched and implemented into policy and practice, with the ultimate aim of improving patient outcomes.
To learn more about one of our Cancer Research UK funded speakers, find the interview below with Dr Laura Marlow (University College London) about her work.
The Second National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative (NAEDI) research conference was held on 17th April 2013 at the Cambridge Research Institute.
