The systemic anti-cancer therapies (SACT) available today range from chemotherapy and hormone treatments to targeted therapies and immunotherapy. Many of these cancer drugs were developed using discoveries that were funded by Cancer Research UK or its predecessor organisations.
We investigated how many cancer patients were treated with a cancer drug that CRUK helped to develop. We looked at this from 2015 to 2023 in England. We also looked at how the number varied across different cancer types.
We also investigated broader patterns of SACT use. We looked at the top 3 drugs prescribed in each year, by cancer site – this analysis included drugs that CRUK wasn’t involved in the development of.
This analysis was conducted in partnership with the National Disease Registration Service, part of NHS England. These results reflect SACT data in England, but we made the assumption that these drugs would be used in similar ways across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so have extrapolated our findings to the UK.
More than 184,000 patients were prescribed a SACT drug in 2023.
Drugs linked to Cancer Research UK’s research are used to treat more than 140,000 cancer patients in the UK every year. This means 8 in 10 patients prescribed cancer drugs receive at least one drug that CRUK has helped to develop.
Drugs linked to Cancer Research UK’s research are used to treat more than 3,300 children and young people with cancer every year in the UK. This means more than 9 in 10 children and young people prescribed cancer drugs receive at least one drug that CRUK has helped to develop.
For all cancers combined, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, the top three SACT drugs over time were dexamethasone, carboplatin and cyclophosphamide. Some cancer sites showed lots of variation over time in the most used SACT drugs. For example, for skin cancer the use of pembrolizumab, which didn’t involve CRUK funding, increased from 16% of patients in 2015 to 41% in 2023.
These findings show that a large number of cancer patients in the UK are being treated with a cancer drug that CRUK helped to develop.
It’s important to reflect on the impact of CRUK’s long-term involvement in funding scientific research into underlying cancer biology, drug discovery and clinical trials, and examine how this has been translated into day-to-day clinical use.
Read the report in fullKirstin Roberts, Martina Slapkova, Fahmina Fardus-Reid, Lucy Ironmonger for the Cancer Intelligence Team at Cancer Research UK.
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