Cancer

What is extrachromosomal DNA? How have we come to think of its role in cancer? And what has all this got to do with a flagship lung cancer study? Here, Dr Chris Bailey tell us how ecDNA challenges traditional models of tumour evolution and drug resistance and why TRACERx has been pivotal in pushing forward

We’ve all seen the headlines. Whether it’s ‘Waiting lists for cancer treatment soar’ in the Express, the Mail talking about ‘Record NHS waiting lists’ or the Guardian reporting ‘Waiting times for cancer care in England longest on record’, the pressure on NHS cancer services is hard to miss. But why are cancer waiting times so

Today, Cancer Research UK has announced TRACERx EVO, a new programme that builds on the discoveries made in the world’s largest long-term lung study, TRACERx. Started in 2014, TRACERx was our flagship investment in lung cancer research. The largest and most detailed genetic study of its kind in lung cancer, TRACERx was awarded over £10m

Professor Carolyn Bertozzi (right) with graduate student Mireille Kamariza Professor Carolyn Bertozzi won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a technique she developed to look at tiny strands of sugar on the surface of our cells. Well, that’s one way of putting it. You could also say she took the kind of complex chemistry

Building a diverse and inclusive health data research workforce is important to ensure we beat cancer sooner, for everyone. Earlier this year we were pleased to host some incredibly talented Black data science interns. Here we find out how they got on…   Data science is becoming an incredibly important tool in cancer research. Data

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, US “Brain tumours are amongst the most difficult-to-treat cancers,” explains Professor Steve Clifford, Chair of Molecular Paediatric Oncology at the University of Newcastle. “It’s especially heartbreaking when they affect children.” Medulloblastoma is a children’s brain cancer that develops in the back of the brain, in an area called the

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK; every year around 48,500 people are diagnosed with the disease and unfortunately only 1 in 10 patients in England will survive their disease for 10 years or more. Those diagnoses are often late, as early symptoms can be easily mistaken for other, less serious,

Overall, cancer survival is improving in the UK and has doubled in the last 40 years. However, survival varies between cancer types, ranging from 98% for testicular cancer to just 1% for pancreatic cancer. But it isn’t only between cancer types that survival varies. There are also differences between countries in survival for several types

Black in Cancer co-founders Dr Henry Henderson and Sigourney Bonner. (Photo by John Nicholson) Dr Faith Uwadiae spent 10 years studying science at some of London’s top universities and research institutes before she had the chance to attend a lecture by another Black woman. That lecture wasn’t actually about science, though. It took another year

At the recent Black in Cancer conference, we heard inspiring tales of community support and encouragement for Black researchers. This is something enshrined in the mentorship programme set-up by Black in Cancer to match students with a mentor scientist. We hear from mentor-mentee paring Melville and Jamie about the importance of representation, retention and hope…   

When a cancer spreads from a primary tumour, the place where it first started to grow, to another area of the body, this is referred to as metastasis. To spread, some cells from a primary tumour need to break away and travel to another place in the body via the bloodstream. These cells then form

Developing treatments and diagnostics from your research really is the best way to create patient impact – and whilst translation can be tricky, Cancer Research Horizons is here to help. We caught up with radiation biologist Professor Catharine West to talk start-up challenges, picking the right technology and why she is so glad she embarked

Medicare open enrollment is upon us for 2023. If you are a Medicare recipient, this is the time of year when you can make (some) changes to your Medicare coverage. What can I change? You can add or change your Medicare part D (drug) plan. You can change to a different Medicare advantage plan. You

Our sun safety messaging tours the UK with the NIVEA Sun Safety Roadshow This year, we wanted to show our deep appreciation to NIVEA Sun who have supported Cancer Research UK for the last decade. To help us achieve our vision of a world where everyone can live longer, better lives, free from the fear

© Anne-Katrin Purkiss Cancer Research UK would like to pay tribute to Dame Valerie Beral, whose research has contributed enormously to the field of women’s health. Dame Valerie was born in Australia where she studied medicine at the University of Sydney. After a few years of clinical work, she turned her attention to epidemiology and

The Free Cancer Hospital, Kensington, London, established 1851. Credit: The Free Cancer Hospital, Kensington, London: aerial view. Wood engraving, 1859. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark Do you know why it’s called cancer? “The first identification of the word cancer is from the Ancient Greeks. They used the term ‘karkinos’, which translates in Latin to canker or cancer

As newly appointed chief scientist for Cancer Research UK, Professor KJ Patel brings a wealth of expertise and experience. We caught up with him to find out why these are incredibly exciting times for life sciences, how he’ll represent the voice of the researcher community, and explore the role of curiosity in a goal driven

The changes to our DNA that cause cancer are most often what’s called somatic mutations. Somatic mutations are mutations that affect any of the cells in our body except for the sex cells – the egg or sperm. That means they can’t be passed on to the next generation. These mutations can be caused by

Yesterday, Jo Hargroves from University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust won the ‘Excellence in Cancer Research Nursing Award’ at the Royal College of Nursing’s annual Nursing Awards – the only award in the UK to recognise research nurses working on cancer trials and studies. We hear from Jo and the other shortlisted nurses about

A Talk Cancer workshop interpreted in Urdu that we ran in Middlesborough, in partnership with Nur Fitness. Talking about cancer has the power to save lives. 1 in 2 of us will get cancer in our lifetime, but around 4 in 10 cases of cancer in the UK could be prevented. Equipping people with the

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended zanubrutinib (Brukinsa) as an option for treating some people with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia (WM), a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that develops in white blood cells. Zanubrutinib is now the first WM drug NICE has recommended for routine NHS use in England. It is

Over the past 20 years, the use of tobacco has fallen from 1.4 billion to 1.3 billion people , globally. This progress is thanks to the efforts of advocates around the world enacting the policy change needed to protect individuals from tobacco’s harmful effects. We want to ensure that policy changes around tobacco control in

Today, the UK National Screening Committee has recommended introducing a targeted lung cancer screening programme across the UK, for those at high risk of the disease. This has the potential to greatly improve early diagnosis of lung cancer. Screening programmes for breast, cervical and bowel cancer save thousands of lives from cancer each year. Now,

A partnership between Cancer Research UK and Blood Cancer UK has resulted in the UK’s leading biomedical research resource dedicated to storing samples and data of cancers in children and young people. What will this mean for the cancer research community? We spoke to Professor Christina Halsey to find out… The VIVO Biobank provides a

Keith competing in the Red Bull Soapbox Race 2019 at Alexandra Park, London It’s well known that exercise reduces cancer risk by helping people maintain a healthy weight, but can it make any difference for people living with cancer? “Research is showing exercise can be helpful both during and after cancer treatment,” says Martin Ledwick,

Welcome to the fourth post in our Inequalities Series, which discusses health inequalities and how they relate to cancer, from prevention and early diagnosis to treatment and research. In this article, we explore some of the barriers that can make it harder for some people to access cancer screening. We spoke to Dr Laura Marlow,

The last couple of weeks has been quite the firestorm for the new Truss administration. When the Prime Minister and the new Government front bench team get past the period of national mourning for the sad passing of the Queen, once-in-a-generation government interventions on the spiralling cost of living and the associated mini-budget, and the

Today, more than 8 in 10 children and young people in the UK, aged 0 to 24, survive their cancer for 10 years or more. Survival of children and young people has hugely increased over the last 50 years. In fact, progress we’ve made in treating and diagnosing these cancers means that we have avoided