Cancer Research UK

History

The Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) was founded in 1902 as the Cancer Research Fund, changing its name to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 1904. It grew over the next twenty years to become one of the world's leading cancer research charities. Its executive committee was chaired by Sir William Church from its inception in 1902 until 1923. Its flagship laboratories formerly at Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, and Clare Hall, Hertfordshire, and known as the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, are now part of the Francis Crick Institute.

The British Empire Cancer Campaign (BECC) was founded in 1923, and initially drew a hostile response from ICRF and the Medical Research Council, who considered it a rival. "The Campaign", as it was colloquially known, became a very successful and powerful grant-giving body. In 1970, the charity was renamed The Cancer Research Campaign (CRC).

Incorporated on 20 November 2001, the two organisations officially merged on 4 February 2002 to form Cancer Research UK, the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world (the largest, the National Cancer Institute, is funded by the US Government). At the time of the merger, the ICRF had an annual income of £124m, while the CRC had an income of £101m.

In June 2011, Cancer Research UK was one of several health charities (along with the British Heart Foundation, the Alzheimer's Society and Parkinson's UK) targeted by the animal rights organisation Animal Aid in a series of advertisements in British newspapers urging members of the public to stop giving donations to organisations that fund medical research involving animal experiments. In April 2017, the Information Commissioner's Office fined eleven charities that breached the Data Protection Act 1998 by misusing donors' personal data. Cancer Research UK was fined £16,000.

Based on article share during the period between January 2015 to August 2019, Nature listed Cancer Research UK in the top 150 of the Top 200 institutions in cancer research in the world. CRUK had an income of £718,793,138 and expenditure of £640,845,146 for the financial year ending in 31 March 2023. On 30 April 2024, King Charles III was announced as patron of the charity.

Information services

Through Cancer Health UK, a website written in Plain English, it provides information on cancer and cancer care, and a unique clinical trials database. A team of nurses provides a confidential telephone service, the Cancer Chat forum provides a place for users to talk to others affected by cancer, and mobile cancer awareness units deliver health information to locations of high cancer incidence and mortality. It provides statistical information via the Cancer Stats section. It also provides publications for the public to order and download.

Cancer Research UK publishes a twice-monthly professional medical journal, the British Journal of Cancer.

In the financial year 2014/15, the charity spent £422.67 million on cancer research projects (67% of its total income for that year). The bulk of the remaining costs were spent on trading and fundraising costs with a small amount spent on information services, campaigning, advocacy, administration and other activities or was held in reserve.

Around 40% of its research expenditure (27% of its total spending) is on basic laboratory research into the molecular basis of cancer. The remainder supports research into over 100 specific cancer types, focusing on drug discovery and development; prevention, early detection and imaging; surgery and radiotherapy; and cancers where survival rates are still low, such as oesophageal, lung and pancreatic cancers. The charity funds the work of over 4,000 researchers, doctors and nurses throughout the UK, supports over 200 clinical trials and studies cancer and cancer risk in over a million people in the UK.

Research institutes

The Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute (formerly the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute), which sits within the University of Glasgow and has ties to the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre

The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, which sits within the University of Cambridge close to Addenbrooke's Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.