The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

and a member institution of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, specialising in

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the

Royal Marsden Hospital The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and D ...

and joined the University of London in 2003. It has been responsible for a number of breakthrough discoveries, including that the basic cause of cancer is damage to DNA. The ICR occupies sites in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

and

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

, southwest London. The ICR provides both taught postgraduate degree programmes and research degrees and currently has around 340 students. Together with the Royal Marsden Hospital the ICR forms the largest comprehensive cancer centre in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and was ranked first amongst all British higher education institutions in the ''

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

'' 2014 Research Excellence Framework Table of Excellence. In clinical medicine, 83% and in biological sciences, 96% of the ICR's academic research was assessed to be world leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*). The annual income of the institution for 2015–16 was £162.1 million of which £61.7 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £110.2 million. The ICR receives its external grant funding from the government body the

Higher Education Funding Council for England The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in Engla ...

, from government research council bodies and from charities including the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

, Breast Cancer Now and Bloodwise. It also receives voluntary income from legacies and from public and corporate donations. The ICR also runs a number of fundraising appeals and campaigns which help support a variety of cancer research projects.

Sites

The ICR occupies two sites in Chelsea, Central London which include the Chester Beatty Laboratories and the ICR corporate offices. A third site in

, Southwest London, houses more research facilities. The location of the two research sites reflects the two sites of the

Research

The ICR pursues its research focused into three main research themes:

genetic epidemiology Genetic epidemiology is the study of the role of genetic factors in determining health and disease in families and in populations, and the interplay of such genetic factors with environmental factors. Genetic epidemiology seeks to derive a statist ...

molecular pathology Molecular pathology is an emerging discipline within pathology which is focused in the study and diagnosis of disease through the examination of molecules within organs, tissues or bodily fluids. Molecular pathology shares some aspects of practice ...

, and therapeutic development. These areas of research are essential for the development of personalised cancer medicine. Towards this aim, the ICR and The Royal Marsden have completed a dedicated £17 million Centre for Molecular Pathology (CMP) which opened on the Sutton site on 20 November 2012. The centre exploits the increasing availability of information about the genetic make-up of different cancer types, in order to design new "personalised" treatments that target cancers' specific molecular defects. The CMP also aims to develop molecular diagnostic techniques that will accurately predict who will benefit most from a treatment, ensuring a patient receives the optimum drug(s) for the best possible outcome. The CMP will build on the organisations' existing expertise in breast, prostate and paediatric cancers, while providing opportunities for new developments in other cancers such as gastrointestinal, renal, gynaecological, melanoma, head & neck cancers and sarcomas. In March 2016, the ICR opened a £20 million Centre for Cancer Imaging that brings together experts in a range of different imaging techniques working together to develop better cancer diagnostic and treatment techniques. The organisation's research direction is set out in the ICR Scientific Strategy 2010–2015, which aims to develop key research areas while enhancing partnership affiliations. Its four objectives are to maintain, develop and exploit the unique relationship with the Marsden; to ensure a balanced portfolio of basic and applied research; to develop treatment regimes to the genetic makeup of patient and tumour (personalised medicine) and to recruit, retain and motivate the best staff.

Teaching

The ICR runs an MSc in Oncology programme, which is a modular course aimed primarily at Specialist Registrars in Clinical and Medical Oncology. The course has exit points at Certificate, Diploma and MSc degree level.

History

1909 to 1970

The ICR was founded in 1909, when a new laboratory building adjoining The Cancer Hospital (later named the

) was established with Alexander Paine as its first director. In 1910 Robert Knox was appointed to head the Electrical and Radio-therapeutic Department at The Cancer Hospital and established the first professionally designed X-ray Department for treatment and diagnosis in Britain. The Cancer Hospital Research Institute was officially opened by Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, in 1911. In 1921 Archibald Leitch was appointed director of The Cancer Hospital Research Institute. The institute became a postgraduate School of the

in 1927. In 1931 Sir Ernest Kennaway FRS became director of the institute. In 1932 a research team led by Kennaway fractionated coal tar and isolated benzo yrene, which he identified as one of the chemical constituents that induced cancer in mice. These were the first research findings to show that a pure chemical substance can cause cancer. In 1936 Kennaway proposed the potential of a link between

smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...

and

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

. The Cancer Hospital Research Institute moved to a new site on

Fulham Road Fulham Road is a street in London, England, which comprises the A304 and part of the A308. Overview Fulham Road ( the A219) runs from Putney Bridge as "Fulham High Street" and then eastward to Fulham Broadway, in the London Borough of Hamme ...

in Chelsea in 1939 and was renamed the Chester Beatty Research Institute. In 1946

Sir Alexander Haddow Sir Alexander Haddow Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (18 January 1907 – 21 January 1976) was a Scottish physician and pathologist at the forefront of cancer research in the 1940s. He served as Director of the Institute of Cancer Research fr ...

FRS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1907-1976) became the director of the Chester Beatty Research Institute. He remained in the role until 1969, In 1947, while conducting research at the institute, David Galton became the first physician in the world to use

aminopterin Aminopterin (or 4-aminopteroic acid), the 4-amino derivative of folic acid, is an antineoplastic drug with immunosuppressive properties often used in chemotherapy. Aminopterin is a synthetic derivative of pterin. Aminopterin works as an enzyme inh ...

(the forerunner of the

methotrexate Methotrexate (MTX), formerly known as amethopterin, is a chemotherapy agent and immune-system suppressant. It is used to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases, and ectopic pregnancies. Types of cancers it is used for include breast cancer, leuke ...

drug) in the treatment of adult

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

, producing remission in some cancer patients. During the 1940s Haddow established a Clinical Chemotherapy Research Unit – the first such unit in Europe – in partnership with the Royal Marsden Hospital and under Galton's leadership. The partnership was unique at the time in being able to take the drug discoveries directly into a partner hospital for clinical trials in cancer patients. The unit led to the institute's discovery of three successful chemotherapy drugs in the 1950s: busulphan (Myleran), chlorambucil (Leukeran) and

melphalan Melphalan, sold under the brand name Alkeran among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat multiple myeloma, ovarian cancer, melanoma, and AL amyloidosis. It is taken by mouth or by injection into a vein. Common side effects incl ...

(Alkeran). In 1952 the ICR's Eric Boyland had proposed that certain chemicals that cause cancer (carcinogens) react with DNA through an

alkylation Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting ...

mechanism that damaged the DNA molecule. In follow-up research at the ICR in 1964, Professors Peter Brookes and Philip Lawley proved that chemical carcinogens act by damaging DNA, leading to mutations and the formation of tumours, proving that cancer is a genetic disease based on mutational events. In 1954 the institute was officially renamed The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). The ICR established a second campus in Sutton, Surrey in 1956. Whilst working at the ICR in 1961,

Jacques Miller Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller AC FRS FAA (born 2 April 1931) is a French-Australian research scientist. He is known for having discovered the function of the thymus and for the identification, in mammalian species of the two major subset ...

discovered the immunological role of the

thymus The thymus is a specialized primary lymphoid organ of the immune system. Within the thymus, thymus cell lymphocytes or ''T cells'' mature. T cells are critical to the adaptive immune system, where the body adapts to specific foreign invaders. ...

, as the repository of a special class of

lymphocytes A lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell (leukocyte) in the immune system of most vertebrates. Lymphocytes include natural killer cells (which function in cell-mediated, cytotoxic innate immunity), T cells (for cell-mediated, cytotoxic adap ...

(

T cells A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell re ...

) essential for the mounting of an immune response.

1970 to 2000

Scientists at the ICR were instrumental in the development of one of the world's most widely used anti-cancer drugs,

carboplatin Carboplatin, sold under the trade name Paraplatin among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat a number of forms of cancer. This includes ovarian cancer, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, brain cancer, and neuroblastoma. It is used b ...

(Paraplatin). Carboplatin's development began in 1970 after scientists in the United States discovered that the platinum-based compound cisplatin was effective against many tumours – but had serious side-effects. A team of ICR and RMH scientists and clinicians including Professors Kenneth Harrap and Tom Connors,

Hilary Calvert Hilary Jane Calvert (born 5 October 1954) is a lawyer and a former member of the New Zealand parliament for the ACT Party. Following the resignation of ACT MP David Garrett in September 2010, she assumed a position in the House of Representative ...

and Hospital Consultant Eve Wiltshaw recognised its potential but also the need for a less toxic alternative. In collaboration with the chemical and precious metal company Johnson Matthey plc the ICR scientists evaluated some 300 different platinum-containing molecules and developed a series of second-generation compounds, of which carboplatin was selected as the lead. The first clinical trial of carboplatin was carried out in 1981 and it was launched commercially as Parplatin (manufactured by Bristol-Myers) in 1986. As of 2012 carboplatin is in use for a range of cancers including ovarian and lung. For the development of these platinum-based anticancer drugs the ICR, together with The Royal Marsden Hospital and Johnson Matthey plc, received the

Queen's Award for Technological Achievement Queens is a borough of New York City. Queens or Queen's may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Queens (group), a Polish musical group * "Queens" (Saara Aalto song), 2018 * ''Queens'' (novel), by Stephen Pickles, 1984 * "Queens", a song by C ...

in 1991. During the 1980s ICR scientists including Professors Hilary Calvert, and Ken Harrap and Ann Jackman developed raltitrexed (Tomudex) at the ICR, a drug active for the treatment of colon and other cancers. In 1983 research teams at the Chester Beatty Laboratory of the ICR led by Professors Chris Marshall FRS and Alan Hall FRS discovered N-RAS, one of the first human cancer transforming genes (

oncogenes An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

). Alan Hall went on in 1992 to discover that the molecular mechanism for the motility behaviour of animal cells (cell to cell attachment and cell movement) is through control of cytoskeletal assembly by specific GTPase-proteins, known as

Rho Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...

and Rac. The discovery is of fundamental significance in cancer research since cell motility is a key feature of cancer cell behaviour during metastasis (the spread of tumours around the human body). In 1994 an ICR team led by Michael Stratton discovered the gene BRCA2, which has been linked to breast cancer, prostate cancer and ovarian cancer. Alan Ashworth's team in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the ICR established the connection between mutations in the BRCA2 gene and the operation of DNA repair pathways in cancer cells. This later led to the development of a

PARP inhibitor PARP inhibitors are a group of pharmacological inhibitors of the enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP). They are developed for multiple indications, including the treatment of heritable cancers. Several forms of cancer are more dependent o ...

drug,

olaparib Olaparib, sold under the brand name Lynparza, is a medication for the maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer in adults. It is a PARP inhibitor, inhibiting poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), an enzyme involved in DNA repair ...

, which targets the DNA repair pathways of cancer cells. A Phase I trial of olaparib found in June 2009 that tumours shrank or stabilised for more than half of patients with

BRCA1 Breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''BRCA1'' () gene. Orthologs are common in other vertebrate species, whereas invertebrate genomes may encode a more distantly related gene. ''BRCA1'' is a h ...

and

BRCA2 ''BRCA2'' and BRCA2 () are a human gene and its protein product, respectively. The official symbol (BRCA2, italic for the gene, nonitalic for the protein) and the official name (originally breast cancer 2; currently BRCA2, DNA repair associated) ...

mutations. It is believed that the drug may also be useful in other patients whose cancer it is linked to an error in their DNA repair pathway. In 1999 the Chester Beatty Laboratory in Chelsea was redeveloped and extended to incorporate the Breakthrough Toby Robins Breast Cancer Research Centre, which was opened by

the Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers o ...

in 1999.

2000 to present

In 2000 Michael Stratton at the ICR initiated the

Cancer Genome Project The Cancer Genome Project is part of the cancer, aging, and somatic mutation research based at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in The United Kingdom. It aims to identify sequence variants/mutations critical in the development of human cancers. ...

, which was aimed at capitalizing on the knowledge from the Human Genome sequence to screen all human genes in cancer cells to identify those genes responsible for specific cancers. The project was established at the genome sequencing facilities of the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is located on the Wellcome G ...

near Cambridge, of which Stratton is now the director. One of the first major achievements of the Cancer Genome Project has been the characterisation of the cancer gene BRAF in collaboration with ICR scientists Professors Chris Marshall and

Richard Marais Richard Malcolm Marais is Director of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Manchester Institute and Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of Manchester. Education Marais was educated at University College London where he was awarded a Bac ...

. The research by the ICR team, published in June 2002, revealed that damage to the BRAF gene could cause up to 70 per cent of melanoma skin cancers. This has been instrumental in speeding up the development of new drugs for the treatment of malignant melanoma. Since 2002 the ICR has been working to develop drugs that inhibit BRAF in melanoma and other cancers where the gene is defective. In the five years from 2004/05, the ICR developed on average two drug development candidates per year. Since 2006, it has licensed three novel series of anti-cancer drugs to major pharmaceutical companies:

Hsp90 Hsp90 (heat shock protein 90) is a chaperone protein that assists other proteins to fold properly, stabilizes proteins against heat stress, and aids in protein degradation. It also stabilizes a number of proteins required for tumor growth, ...

inhibitors to

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...

, PKB inhibitors to

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includin ...

and PI3Kinase inhibitors to

Genentech Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...

. The PIl3Kinase inhibitor GDC-0941, licensed to Genentech by Piramed, is thought to have potential in a range of human cancers. In laboratory experiments, ICR scientists found that the drug reduced the growth of

glioblastoma Glioblastoma, previously known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is one of the most aggressive types of cancer that begin within the brain. Initially, signs and symptoms of glioblastoma are nonspecific. They may include headaches, personality ch ...

(the most common form of brain tumour), it decreased the growth of ovarian tumours and in other studies, it was active against cell lines derived from other human cancers. In conjunction with

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS Foundation Trust which operates the Royal Marsden Hospital facilities on two sites: *The Chelsea site in Brompton, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road *The Sutton site in ...

, the ICR tested a promising new prostate cancer drug called

abiraterone Abiraterone acetate, sold under the brand name Zytiga among others, is a medication used to treat prostate cancer. Specifically it is used together with a corticosteroid for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and metastat ...

, which it discovered and developed. A randomised placebo-controlled Phase III trial reported in October 2010 that abiraterone could extend survival in some men with late stage prostate cancer. The trial, funded by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, included 1,195 patients from 13 countries whose advanced prostate cancer had stopped responding to standard therapies. Abiraterone extended the average overall survival of patients from 10.9 months to 14.8 months compared to a placebo, without many of the unpleasant side-effects associated with conventional chemotherapy. The FDA in April 2011 approved the drug for sale in the US under the trade name Zytiga.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Institute Of Cancer Research University of London Health in London Educational institutions established in 1909 Research institutes in London Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom 1909 establishments in England Research institutes established in 1909