London Cancer Hub to accelerate the discovery of treatments

A new global hub for cancer research and treatment is to be established in London with the aim of accelerating the discovery of new treatments.

A new ‘roadmap’ document published today outlines how The London Cancer Hub will become a world-leading life-science campus specialising in cancer research, treatment, education and enterprise. It calculates that The London Cancer Hub will potentially create more than 13,000 jobs and will deliver at least two extra cancer drugs every five years.

The initiative aims to bring together 10,000 scientists, clinical and support staff in a vibrant community of collaborating organisations served by research, educational and leisure facilities. It will be a hotbed for talent, offering research and development space for biotech, pharma and software companies, and equipment manufacturers.

The London Cancer Hub is a partnership between The Institute of Cancer Research, London, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and the London Borough of Sutton.

The London Cancer Hub will be developed on the Sutton site of The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden, and is planned to cover 265,000 square metres – double its current research and treatment space. The partners are working closely with Epsom and St Helier University NHS Trust – which owns Sutton Hospital on the site – to open up substantial space for expansion and more efficient use of land.

New buildings will closely integrate research and cancer care – providing both laboratories and clinical facilities, in order to actively drive interactions between scientists and clinicians.

London Cancer Hub aims to discover drugs, run more trials and to partner with industry

The initiative aims to build on the world-leading position the partners already hold in drug discovery and development. The ICR is a global leader at discovering new cancer drugs – with 20 drug candidates identified since 2005 alone – and The Royal Marsden is an international centre of excellence for cancer treatment.

Professor Paul Workman, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: “This is a fantastically exciting project to create the world’s leading cancer research campus here in London.

“The ICR and The Royal Marsden are already world leaders in cancer research and treatment, but by working with the London Borough of Sutton and the Greater London Authority, we aim to take our facilities and outputs to a new level. The ambition is to discover more innovative cancer drugs, to run more clinical trials, and to partner with industry to take even more treatments to patients.”

In April 2014, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP launched his MedCity initiative which aims to transform the life sciences sector in London and the greater south east into a world-leading cluster for research, development, enterprise and commercialisation.

Supporting The London Cancer Hub, the Mayor said: “London is already a global capital of science and is awash with numerous exciting research institutions. The London Cancer Hub would be a real coup for the city and would help to ensure that the capital remains on the frontline of developing new treatments to cure the disease.”