Cancer Research UK is the leading independent funder of cancer research in Europe. We receive virtually no government funding – it is the continuing support of the general public that enables us to progress our research. We ensure that we make wise use of the money we receive.

Where we do research

We conduct research into all aspects of cancer, and support over 500 research groups in more than 35 towns and cities in the UK.

Deciding what research to fund

A rigorous screening and peer review process underpins all the research funded through Cancer Research UK. You can find out more about this in our how we fund research section.

This process ensure that every penny of our scientific spend – some £315 million during the financial year to 31 March 2007 – goes toward research of the highest quality and works as hard as it can for progress against cancer.

How much does research cost?

Scientific research is expensive. The examples below give some sense of the resources needed to fund our research.

• £1,000 funds one woman's participation in the IBIS II breast cancer prevention trials
• £40,000 is one year's contribution towards a trial that is comparing different approaches for treating localised invasive bladder cancer
• £100,000 allows us to buy a DNA sequencer, helping scientist to identify potential new cancer genes, and to detect genetic change involved in cancer
• £900,000 is the average cost of running a lab for a year at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute
• £1.3million – the amount Cancer Research UK is contributing to the Europe wide EPIC study of the next 3 years. EPIC is the largest study of diet and cancer ever undertaken.

Find out more

Find out more about our research, including current research and future plans.

For further information on how we spend our funds please look at our annual report and accounts.

Visit our support us section to find out how you can help us to continue our research.