UK Keratinocyte Cancer Collaborative - Generating a Molecular Atlas for Skin Cancer

Surgeons across the UK will begin collecting tumour samples and health data from thousands of patients with a common but poorly understood skin cancer to build the country’s first molecular atlas of the disease. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the second most common skin cancer, yet doctors lack reliable ways to predict which cases will turn aggressive and spread. Current treatment decisions rely largely on tumour size and location, which are blunt tools. This project fills that gap by linking detailed gene expression and immune profiles of high-risk tumours to patients’ long-term outcomes. If successful, the atlas will give clinicians a molecular roadmap to distinguish dangerous cSCC from indolent disease. That could spare thousands of patients from unnecessary surgery or radiotherapy while flagging those who need intensive monitoring or experimental therapies. The virtual biobank, housed within NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde’s Tissue Biorepository, is designed as a permanent national resource, so future researchers can test new hypotheses without starting from scratch.