A Century of Scientific Excellence

Each year, more than ten million people around the world are diagnosed with some form of cancer. There is hardly a family that is unaffected.

In short, cancer touches us all.

Reassuringly, significant progress has been made in reducing mortality for a wide range of cancers. And over the century, The Institute has been a leader in making many of these advances.

The ICR’s discoveries have not only fuelled its own continuing research but also informed and influenced other discoveries at other institutions around the world.

Some of our Achievements

1910 – The ICR founds a specialist radiotherapy department – one of the first in the world

1930s – The ICR identifies the potential link between smoking and lung cancer which was subsequently confirmed.

1950s – The ICR develops the drugs busulphan, chlorambucil and melphalan – all of them outstandingly successful in treating cancer and which are still used today.

1960s – ICR scientists show that carcinogens act by damaging DNA, leading to the dramatic discovery that the basic cause of cancer is a DNA malfunction.

1970s – The ICR develops carboplatin, the use of which becomes the global standard of care for patients with a wide range of solid tumours, and leads to the high cure rate for testicular cancer.

1995 – The ICR identifies the breast cancer gene BRCA2, mutations in which predispose carriers to high risk of breast cancer. The finding provides the opportunity to initiate breast cancer prevention studies.

2000 – ICR scientists initiate the Cancer Genome Project with the aim of identifying genes that have relevance to particular cancers. The project, being conducted at the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute, has so far discovered over 350 genes associated with cancer.