Thursday 2 February 2012
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust have launched their Joint Annual Research Report for 2010/11, highlighting a year of significant achievements.
The ICR and The Royal Marsden have been working together for over 100 years to improve the lives of patients diagnosed with cancer and today form Europe’s largest comprehensive cancer centre. By working as one integrated centre, the two organisations are able to translate basic science quickly and effectively into clinical benefit for patients and to use observations from clinical trials to drive further basic research.
“Our unique partnership means that we can deliver and implement innovations in cancer treatment in a way few other organisations can match,” says the ICR’s Chief Executive Professor Alan Ashworth. “Working together, we are making a global impact on cancer research and treatment and changing the lives of people with cancer.”
“This year has been one of significant achievement and progress,” says The Royal Marsden’s Chief Executive Cally Palmer. “We were delighted to retain our status as the only specialist biomedical research centre for cancer in England
“During the last year we began building our centre for molecular pathology, which will bring scientists and clinicians together to allow us to develop new strategies and discoveries in molecular diagnostics. We’ve also made very significant progress in our world leading drug development unit, making a huge impact on the drugs available to patients worldwide.”
The report, which this year has moved online, features short films on the joint research strategy, the new centre for molecular pathology and the huge success of abiraterone acetate receiving a license in Europe and the US for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer, the culmination of 20 years’ of hard work by the organisations’ scientist and clinicians.
Other highlights include patient trials of the drug vemurafenib, the identification of new inheritable genes that predispose men to prostate cancer, advances in radiotherapy that have helped to improve patient outcome, and our latest cancer drug discovery and development activity.
The joint annual research report is available at http://www.jointcancerreport.org
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Media Contact: ICR Science Communications Manager Jane Bunce on 0207 153 5106 or after hours 077217 47900. The Royal Marsden PR and Communications Manager Elaine Parr on 0207 808 2107 or after hours 0207 352 8171
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
- The ICR is Europe’s leading cancer research centre
- The ICR has been ranked the UK’s top academic research centre, based on the results of the Higher Education Funding Council’s Research Assessment Exercise
- The ICR works closely with partner The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust to ensure patients immediately benefit from new research. Together the two organisations form the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe
- The ICR has charitable status and relies on voluntary income
- As a college of the University of London, the ICR also provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction
- Over its 100-year history, the ICR’s achievements include identifying the potential link between smoking and lung cancer which was subsequently confirmed, discovering that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer and isolating more cancer-related genes than any other organisation in the world
- The Institute of Cancer Research’s Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit (ICR- CTSU) is an academic clinical trials unit accredited by the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) to conduct clinical trials into cancer treatments. The department is funded by an infrastructure grant from Cancer Research UK.
For more information, visit www.icr.ac.uk
The Royal Marsden
The Royal Marsden opened its doors in 1851 as the world’s first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.
Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe treating over 44,000 patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies. The Royal Marsden also provides community services in the London boroughs of Sutton and Merton and in June 2010, along with the ICR, the Trust launched a new academic partnership with Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Middlesex.
Since 2004, the hospital’s charity, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, has helped raise over £50 million to build theatres, diagnostic centres, and drug development units. Prince William became President of The Royal Marsden in 2007, following a long royal connection with the hospital.
For more information please visit www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk