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World Cancer Day

With a long history of major breakthroughs, UCL is home to one of the largest concentrations of cancer specialists to be found anywhere in the world. On World Cancer Day 2025, we spotlight some of the transformational work taking place across UCL in collaboration with our scientific and funding partners, and look to the future with new and different approaches to cancer.

 

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Pioneering immunotherapy research


UCL researchers are studying new therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Here we meet some of the scientists and clinicians from the lab of Professor Hans Stauss, to find out more about their work on manipulating the body's immune system to control disease, what drives them and why they are excited about working with patients to find new cures.

Using our own cells to target cancer

Harnessing our own biology

A key strand of our approach to new cancer treatments, is to explore how we can use our own biology to our advantage - empowering immune cells, proteins and genes to recognise and eliminate cancer. Essentially using living cells, their components or products as the basis of a therapy.

Child in a hospital bed
New clinical trial gives hope to children with agressive blood cancer

A clinical trial for children with an aggressive type of blood cancer, led by UCL and GOSH, will run alongside an adult trial with the hope of developing more targeted and effective treatments.

microscopy Killer T cells surround a cancer cell
New CAR T cell therapy trial shows promise for treatment of acute leukaemia

Results from the FELIX trial show how a second-generation CAR-T cell therapy, known as 'obe-cel', has reduced immune toxicity and persists for longer in patients.

close up of an arm with intravenous infusion in hospital ward
Immunotherapy significantly increases number of patients free from bowel cancer

An immunotherapy drug given before surgery instead of chemotherapy meant that significantly more patients with a certain genetic profile were cancer free after surgery.

Engineering better outcomes

We look beyond the biomedicine field to leverage the strenths of our entire university - embracing a new era of engineering and computation to advance the detection, diagnosis, treatment and management of cancer.

Illustration of DNA helix
Tumour DNA in the blood can predict lung cancer outcome

A test to detect tumour DNA circulating in the blood can predict lung cancer outcomes, finds new research from scientists at UCL, the Francis Crick Institute, UCLH and Personalis.

Two people at a desk looking at computer monitor with scan on screen
New screening trial to save thousands of men's lives from prostate cancer

UCL scientists will co-lead Prostate Cancer UK’s new £42m screening trial, which aims to find the best way to screen men for prostate cancer and double the number of lives saved.

Photoacoustic tomography image of diseased vasculature in the foot of a patient with type-2 diabetes
Medical imaging breakthrough could transform cancer diagnosis

A new hand-held scanner developed by UCL researchers can generate highly detailed 3D photoacoustic images in just seconds, offering the potential for earlier disease diagnosis.

Leaving no one behind

One of UCL's founding principles is to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Being in the heart of London, serving a diverse population, we are determined to leave no one behind. 

Professor John Bridgewater
New precision medicine study for patients with biliary tract cancer opens

A new clinical trial, sponsored by UCL and UCLH, aims to extend survival for some patients with cancer in the biliary tract by treating them with therapies specifically tailored to the genetic profile of their tumour..

Blurred image of child in hospital bed with drip in the foreground
New treatment for brain tumours approved following decades of work

The first ever targeted treatment for brain tumours in children has been approved for NHS patients, following over 20 years of research by a UCL clinician scientist. Combination of Dabrafenib and Trametinib shown to be four times more effective than chemotherapy with half the side effects.

Big data technology representation motion of digital data flow
UCL joins £10 million project to identify individual cancer risk

The programme aims to access and link data from different sources - including health records, genomics, family history, demographics - to develop advanced statistical models that help scientists accurately predict who is most likely to get cancer. 

Training and supporting the next generation

UCL's is a global leader in research and education. Our scientific community is dedicated to discovering new techniques in cancer detection and treatment that can make a real difference to the lives of cancer patients. 

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Developing CAR T immunotherapy to treat glioblastoma

PhD student, Morgan Palton, talks about her immunotherapy research and the UCL CAR T programme at UCL, plus her experiences studying our Cancer MSc course. 

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'Living medicines' - drugs formed of cells with a life of their own

Ursule Demaël is a PhD student at the UCL Institute of Immunity and Transplantation, based in the Pears Building, Hampstead. 

Breakthrough Cervical Cancer Trial

Abbie was 27 years old when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She took part in a UCL-led clinical trial (INTERLACE) which is set to change the way the disease is treated across the world. The trial results showed that a course of treatment with existing drugs prior to chemoradiation led to a 35% reduction in the risk of death or return of cancer.

To find out more about the trial, we spoke with Abbie, Dr Mary McCormack, consultant medical oncologist at UCLH and lead investigator for the INTERLACE trial and Simran Vaja, one of the statisticians at the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre tasked with making sense of the data.

INTERLACE trial

 

Patient stories from our Cancer Trials Centre

These patients were offered CAR T-cell therapy as part of a clinical trial at UCLH when their previous treatments for lymphoma or leukaemia had proved unsuccessful. The therapy involves collecting some of a patient’s immune cells, genetically engineering them in a lab so they are better able to target cancer, and then putting them back into the patient's body during a process called 'infusion'.

Sophie's story

Sophie, 26, began CAR T-cell therapy after her leukaemia returned for a third time. Now, things are finally getting back to normal.

Claire's story

Claire was referred to UCLH's CAR T-cell therapy trial after a difficult experience with a bone marrow transplant. She says it saved her life.

Panos's story

After three unsuccessful courses of chemotherapy, Panos underwent CAR T-cell therapy, which proved to be a 'miraculous treatment'.

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