ADR UK supports £10 million programme to identify individual cancer risk
Categories: Research using linked data, Press releases, ADR Wales, YDG Cymru, ADR UK Partnership, Health & wellbeing
22 January 2025
Doctors could soon be able to predict people’s individual chances of getting cancer and offer personalised detection and prevention, thanks to a new research project.
Today, Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are announcing £10 million to create the Cancer Data-Driven Detection programme. ADR UK is supporting the programme with in-kind investment in a project.
The programme aims to access and link data from different sources - including health records, genomics, family history, demographics, and behavioural data - to develop advanced statistical models that help scientists accurately predict who is most likely to get cancer. Alongside this, the programme will develop powerful new tools which use AI to analyse the data and calculate an individual’s risk of cancer throughout their lifetime.
"... tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers."
Over the next five years, the funding will build the infrastructure required to access and link these datasets and train new data scientists. The programme will also create the algorithms behind the risk models and evaluate the algorithms and AI tools to ensure that they are giving accurate and clinically useful information about cancer risk. Guided by partnerships with cancer patients, the public, clinical experts and industry, it will address ethical and legal considerations to ensure that the models and tools work well in practice.
The models generated from this research could be used to help people at higher risk of cancer in different ways. For example, the NHS could offer more frequent cancer screening sessions or screening at a younger age to those at higher risk, while those at lower risk could be spared unnecessary tests. People identified as higher risk could also be sent for cancer testing faster when they go to their GP with possible cancer signs or symptoms. Individuals at higher risk could also access different ways to prevent cancer.
Director of the Cancer Data Driven Detection programme and Professor of Cancer Risk Prediction at the University of Cambridge, Antonis Antoniou, said: “Finding people at the highest risk of developing cancer, including those with vague symptoms, is a major challenge. The UK’s strengths in population-scale data resources, combined with advanced analytical tools like AI, offer tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers.“
"... only through the more systematic linking of administrative and health data, can we develop a fully rounded longitudinal picture of the factors that affect a person’s life."
As part of the programme, ADR UK is providing funding that will support linking of administrative and health data to understand the cancer incidence in Wales. By integrating several sources of data, the project will identify patterns and inequalities in cancer occurrence and screening and will give doctors better ways of predicting cancer risk. The funding will support the Cancer Data Driven Detection community of researchers to access and use the SAIL Databank.
Dr Emma Gordon, Director of ADR UK, said: “The potential for insights by linking administrative and health data cannot and must not be a missed opportunity. In supporting this programme, ADR UK hopes to improve the outcomes of people at higher risk of cancer. Also, to clearly demonstrate that only through the more systematic linking of administrative and health data, can we develop a fully rounded longitudinal picture of the factors that affect a person’s life, and thereby start to improve everyone’s life outcomes.”
"As the Prime Minister set out last week, we’re backing the power of big data and AI, which has the potential to help even more patients, including those with cancer, to help catch it earlier."
Minister for Public Health and Prevention, Andrew Gwynne said: “When it comes to fighting cancer, every second counts. As the Prime Minister set out last week, we’re backing the power of big data and AI, which has the potential to help even more patients, including those with cancer, to help catch it earlier.
“Using the latest technology could revolutionise how the NHS diagnoses and treats patients. As part of this government’s Plan for Change, we will transform our health service from analogue to digital, and innovative projects like this show exactly how we will achieve it.”
Science Minister, Lord Vallance, said: “This investment in harnessing the potential of data to spot those at risk of cancer represents the sort of innovation the Government’s new AI Opportunities Action Plan sets out to realise, so this technology improves lives, while transforming public services and boosting growth.”
The Cancer Data Driven Detection programme is jointly supported by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health & Care Research, the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and ADR UK. Read more about the ADR UK-funded project.
