London
The Cancer Research UK London Research Institute
We support over 40 research groups at our own research centre, the London Research Institute (LRI), in two locations:
- Lincoln's Inn Fields Laboratories in Central London
- Clare Hall Laboratories at South Mimms in Hertfordshire
The LRI specialises in research aimed at understanding how normal cells in the body become cancers. This knowledge will provide the foundation for developing new and more effective ways of preventing and treating cancer.
Here are some examples of our extensive research at the LRI:
Understanding how cancer develops
Fundamental research such as this is important if we are to understand how and why cancers develop.
Helping our body's natural defence mechanism fight cancer
Scientists thought that only specialised cells in the immune system reacted to viruses. But, a group led by Dr Caetano Reis e Sousa discovered that even non-specialised immune cells can respond to viruses and this response can be stimulated artificially.
The team hopes that this discovery will help them to design vaccines that mimic viral infection and trigger the body’s own defences to attack and destroy cancer cells.
Other research interests at the LRI include:
- understanding how cancers establish a blood supply that allows them to keep growing and to spread
- identifying signals in cancer cells that could be targeted by anti-cancer drugs
- finding out how DNA damage leads to cancer
- investigating how cancer cells are able to spread around the body
- discovering the faulty genes that increase the risk of bowel cancer.
Read more about our research at the LRI .
Cancer Research UK also funds research at many other institutions around London.
Understanding the causes of cancer
Cancer Research UK provides substantial funding to The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Europe's leading cancer research centre. Together with the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the ICR forms the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe. The ICR has two sites, the Chester Beatty Laboratories in Chelsea and the Haddow Laboratories in Sutton.
A number of groups at the ICR are helping to unravel the molecular and genetic causes of cancer. Current projects include:
- searching for the faulty genes that are responsible for the increased risk of breast or prostate cancer in some families – this will help doctors to identify people at greater risk of these cancers and find ways to help them.
- investigating how cancer cells move around the body, in order to develop drugs to stop the disease spreading
- working out the three-dimensional structure of molecules that are faulty in cancer cells - understanding how a molecule’s shape and structure changes in cancer cells will help scientists design new anti-cancer drugs
Cancer cells have lost control of their normal processes — they grow and divide very rapidly and can spread around the body. A complex network of signals control this. Professor Marshall and his team have discovered an important signalling pathway in cancer cells that involves a protein called Ras.
Signals pass along the Ras pathway instructing the cancer to grow. So Professor Marshall's team are looking at how these signals can be changed, to disrupt this pathway and halt cancer growth. This work provides an excellent example of how laboratory research opens up important opportunities for the development of new cancer treatments.
Faults in cell signalling pathways are the cause of many cases of cancer. Dr Richard Marais at the Centre is studying another important signalling pathway that involves a protein called B-RAF. His team have found that this protein is important for cell growth and is very active in cancer cells. Their work provides important information about how the biology of cancer cells differ from normal cells and they hope to exploit this knowledge to manufacture new anti-cancer drugs.
Improving cancer treatments
Research into improving cancer treatments bridges the gap between the laboratory and the clinic. It uses our understanding of cancer to develop and test new treatments and to improve existing treatments.The Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre at St Bart's and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry was set up to get new treatments to patients, by finding practical applications for the huge amount of new biological knowledge that is becoming available.
The Centre is directed by Professor Nick Lemoine and is home to around 300 Cancer Research UK-funded doctors and scientists. Current areas of research include:
- designing potential new treatments, such as gene therapy and cancer vaccines, for pancreatic and ovarian cancer
- Looking for proteins specific to cancer that can be used to help doctors diagnose and treat patients
- Developing new strategies for treating ovarian cancer by targeting the inflammatory cells inside tumours.
The Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton is directed by Professor Paul Workman. Researchers here aim to develop new anti-cancer drugs.
The Centre is one of the leading anti-cancer drug-discovery centres in the world, outside of the pharmaceutical industry. Over the last ten years the centre has put at least one new drug into clinical trials each year.
Professor Richard Begent is Head of the Department of Oncology and Director of the Cancer Research UK Targeting and Imaging Research Group at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London. He is a world authority on the use of antibodies to treat cancer patients. With the help of sophisticated imaging techniques, Professor Begent and his team of researchers are developing antibody-based therapies, which have the potential to target cancer cells without harming healthy tissues.
Researchers at Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood, lead by Professor Michele Saunders have developed a different way of giving radiotherapy. The treatment is delivered in more frequent doses over a shorter time period than conventional radiotherapy. The team’s latest research aims to improve the treatment of brain cancer.
Clinical trials are a vital part of improving treatments, as they are the only way of finding out how effective and safe a new drug is in patients. One of the many centres in London that run clinical trials is the Cancer Research UK and University College London Cancer Trials Centre. This is a major trials centre and is running some of the largest UK clinical trials in common cancers.
Assessing the emotional impact of cancer
The group’s research includes:
- investigating why older women often delay going to their doctors with symptoms of breast cancer
- improving support for doctors who look after cancer patients
- designing strategies to help cancer patients cope with the side effects of treatment
- developing clear information and emotional support for patients.
A recent study by the group has shown that aromatherapy massage can have a positive, short-term effect on anxiety and depression in cancer patients.
Investigating cancer screening
Currently in the UK, the NHS runs screening programmes for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. Cancer Research UK funds a number of scientists who are investigating screening of other types of cancer, or ways to improve the current screening programmes.
Professor Ian Jacobs, at University College London, is running two studies investigating ovarian cancer screening.
Due to the lack of obvious symptoms, over half of women with ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until the disease is in its late stages. By that time, the cancer tends to have spread to other parts of the body and is more difficult to treat.
At present there is no national screening programme for ovarian cancer, and only women with a strong family history are regularly monitored for early signs of the disease.
The UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) is a large-scale trial that will assess the effectiveness and feasibility of a national ovarian cancer screening programme. The trial is comparing two different screening tests. It aims to find out if either test works and which one is better at detecting the early stages of this disease. The trial involves over 200,000 women and is taking place in hospitals across the UK.
The second study, The UK Familial Ovarian Cancer Screening Study (UKFOCCS), is looking for ways to optimise screening for women with a family history of ovarian cancer.
Dr Sue Moss runs the UK Cancer Screening Evaluation Unit at the Institute of Cancer Research. She has been investigating whether there is any benefit to starting breast screening at the age of 40 instead of 50. Results from the study showed that, after 10 years of follow-up, deaths from breast cancer were not significantly reduced. Scientists are following the women involved in the trial to see if there is any benefit after longer follow-up.
Professor Stephen Duffy at St Bart's and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry investigates how effective cancer screening programmes are, particular breast screening. In 2003, Professor Duffy’s team showed that breast screening by mammography does help to reduce the death rate from breast cancer. Professor Duffy was also involved in research that showed that screening reduces the rates of mastectomy. This is probably because screening detects cancers earlier, when they are small and can be removed without removing the whole breast. In 2006, Professor Duffy and colleagues from across the UK showed that using a computer to help read mammograms could reduce the workload of the radiographers.
Preventing cancer
Research into cancer prevention includes studying thousands of people, to monitor cancer trends and identify the causes of cancer. Some studies reveal the effects that our behaviour and lifestyle can have on the development or prevention of cancer. Others are looking at the use of drugs to prevent cancer developing in people at high risk of the disease.
At St Bart's and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, Cancer Research UK-funded scientists are leading the way in large-scale prevention trials for women at increased risk of developing breast cancer. The IBIS-I trial showed that tamoxifen could prevent up to a third of breast cancers in women at increased risk. The IBIS-II trial is looking at whether the drug anastrozole can help prevent the disease, but with fewer side-effects than tamoxifen.
A second arm of the IBIS II trial is investigating whether anastrozole is more effective than tamoxifen for preventing very early non-invasive breast cancer from coming back or progressing to invasive breast cancer.
Kaposi’s sarcoma is the most common cancer in people infected with HIV. Indeed, the worldwide burden of this cancer is heavy due to the AIDS epidemic. At University College London, we are funding Professor Chris Boshoff’s work into Kaposi’s sarcoma. His team have discovered how this cancer develops, which could pave the way for new ways to detect and treat it.
At the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Centre at University College London, researchers are studying how our behaviour can affect cancer risk. They aim to develop practical ways to help people change their behaviour and reduce their risk of the disease. Key areas of research include:
- understanding the causes of obesity
- investigating the effectiveness of weight-loss strategies
- testing new methods to help people give up smoking
- assessing public attitudes to cancer screening programmes
- monitoring the attitudes of teenagers towards smoking, diet and exercise.
Improving treatment for children's cancer
Childhood cancer is quite rare, affecting around 1 in 500 children under the age of 15 in Britain. The small numbers of patients, particularly those with rare childhood cancers, mean that collaborative clinical trials are essential if treatment is to rapidly improve.
We fund the clinical trials work of the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG). The group co-ordinates the care of virtually all the UK’s children with cancer, ensuring they receive the most up-to-date treatments. Children involved in clinical trials tend to do better and the CCLG has greatly improved recruitment in recent years. The CCLG runs trials at 21 paediatric centres throughout the British Isles. These include the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and The University College Hospital in London, and the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton.
Find more of our research in southeast England.
