ABOUT

AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

Cancer Research UK, the largest independent funder of cancer research globally, and the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, a leader in precision cancer medicine, have formed an international collaboration to accelerate research in the early detection of cancer.

The goal of this unique trans-Atlantic agreement is to find lethal cancers as they’re forming so they can be treated more effectively. Survival increases significantly when the disease is treated at an early stage.

The collaboration also seeks to accelerate progress by breaking down barriers for scientists, including:

  • A lack of cohorts of sufficient size;
  • A shortage of harmonising collection protocols and tissue samples available for research, especially samples from higher-risk patients;
  • Limited funding for this type of research;
  • Lack of understanding of the biology of early cancer and technologies to detect its features.
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"Focusing on early diagnosis will help us achieve our ambition of three in four people surviving cancer in 20 years. But to make progress, we need more research into the biology of early disease, we need new model systems, new technologies and new development pathways for diagnostics. We’re proud to be partnering with the Knight Cancer Institute on this important area of cancer research."

Iain Foulkes, Ph.D.Executive Director of Strategy and Research Funding at Cancer Research UK

A GLOBAL NETWORK OF RESEARCHERS

The collaboration is hosting their second annual international conference, bringing together leaders in early detection as well as top scientists and innovators in cancer research and bioengineering.

The 2017 conference will build on last year’s conference which launched Cancer Research UK and OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s journey to develop a global network of experts dedicated to collaboratively accelerating discovery.

Cancer Research UK invests about £330 million ($500 million) every year into research across all cancer types. Its extensive expertise and infrastructure, as well as its close ties to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, make it ideally situated to lead efforts in the United Kingdom.

The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is also deeply committed to this area of cancer research. In June 2015, the institute announced that it had raised £660 million ($1 billion) to devote to precision cancer medicine, chiefly early detection. The money — including a £300 million ($500 million) gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny ― enabled the institute to begin recruiting top researchers, and to speed construction of a research building and cancer clinic.

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“The full potential of precision cancer medicine will only be realized when it is coupled with a sophisticated early-detection effort. We need to develop tests that distinguish slow and non-lethal cancers from more dangerous malignancies. We are committed to uniting researchers worldwide and ensuring the next generation of cancer detection becomes a reality.”

Brian Druker, M.D.Director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute

ABOUT CANCER RESEARCH UK

  • Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.
  • Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
  • Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated.
  • Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival rates in the UK double in the last forty years.
  • Today, 2 in 4 people in the UK survive cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK’s ambition is to accelerate progress so that 3 in 4 people will survive cancer within the next 20 years.
  • Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses, based in CRUK Centres and Institutes across the UK.
  • Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK’s vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

For more information, browse Cancer Research UK’s early detection research strategy and funding opportunities. To stay up-to-date with Cancer Research UK’s work, subscribe to our Research Update newsletter, or follow us on Twitter.

ABOUT THE KNIGHT CANCER INSTITUTE

  • The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University is a pioneer in the field of precision cancer medicine.
  • The institute’s director, Brian Druker, M.D., helped prove it was possible to shut down just the cells that enable cancer to grow. This breakthrough has made once-fatal forms of the disease manageable and transformed how cancer is treated.
  • The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center between Sacramento and Seattle – an honor earned only by the nation’s top cancer centers.
  • It is headquarters for one of the National Cancer Institute’s largest research collaboratives, SWOG, in addition to offering the latest treatments and technologies as well as hundreds of research studies and clinical trials.

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