Completed Cancer Mental Health

DATA-CAN - The Health Data Research Hub for Cancer

Funder UKRI
Recipient organisation UCL Partners
Funding £4.3M
Period Sept 2019 — Sept 2022

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Cancer patients across the UK are giving permission for their medical records, scans, and treatment outcomes to be pooled into a single secure digital hub called DATA-CAN. The problem is straightforward: cancer data in the UK is scattered across hospitals, GP surgeries, and research centres, making it difficult for researchers to spot patterns, compare treatments, or test new ideas at scale. Without a unified, high-quality dataset, progress in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment is slower and more fragmented than it could be. If DATA-CAN succeeds, approved researchers and innovators will gain access to a rich, responsibly governed resource of real-world cancer data. This could accelerate the development of faster diagnostics, more effective treatments, and better ways to organise care. The NHS itself could use the hub’s analytics to optimise patient pathways in real time. The project also aims to attract investment by giving companies a reliable, ethical data infrastructure to work with. This is not fundamental science—it is an infrastructure project. Its impact will be felt in the everyday workings of the health system: how quickly a new drug reaches patients, how confidently a clinician can personalise a treatment plan, and how efficiently the NHS uses its resources.

View original technical description
"Access to high-quality health data opens up new opportunities to improve cancer care. By working with patients across the UK to bring their data together and employ these data effectively but responsibly, we will help create new ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer that are quicker, more costeffective and work better. DATA-CAN, the National Cancer Digital Innovation Hub, will transform the collection and examination of high-quality cancer data across the UK. We will ensure all data are held securely and we will always involve patients in decisions about how their data might be used. We will make these data available for legitimate use by approved researchers and innovators, and support them by providing advice from specialists who deeply understand both the data and cancer causes/treatment. DATA-CAN is supported by patients, clinicians, academic and industry-based researchers and innovators, and will involve cancer centres across the UK. We will help empower the NHS to use data and analytics to optimise care for patients, while supporting universities and companies who work with us to discover and develop new diagnostics/treatments. DATA-CAN will deliver benefits for patients and healthcare professionals, improve the UK’s health, enhance innovation and create new investment in healthcare."

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Charlie Davie (Principal Investigator)Geoff Hall (Co-Investigator)Mark Lawler (Co-Investigator)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

DATA-CAN: the health data research hub for cancer
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Original classification

Intramural

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.