Oxford

Ever since Richard Doll, who first identified the link between smoking and cancer, joined the University in 1969, Oxford has been a byword for cancer epidemiology. Now that research into diagnosis and treatment has reached a critical mass, Oxford is on its way to being a byword for cancer research generally: a powerhouse across a huge range of research and treatment.

The great advantage to cancer researchers in Oxford is what might be thought of as a ’cancer hub’: a new Institute for Cancer Medicine to open in 2008 stands next to the Richard Doll building (housing epidemiological studies and clinical trials services), near cancer research in the Churchill and John Radcliffe hospitals, and right over the road from the city’s new £100m cancer hospital.

The Institute will bring together three world-leading researchers in cancer. Professor Gillies McKenna studies radiation biology and oncology. Professor David Kerr studies clinical pharmacology. The third, Professor Xin Lu, directs the UK branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, an international research trust with nine centres in seven countries. She is bringing the UK branch from London to Oxford in order to be part of Oxford’s new cancer hub.

These researchers and their teams will not only be close to the city’s hospitals but will be surrounded by other cancer researchers in nearby centres and departments. ‘The location means clinical science and basic science will be able to interact at multiple levels – from protein and gene structures to population science and epidemiology,’ says Dr Ken Fleming, Head of Oxford’s Medical Sciences Division. ‘There’s no other centre of this size or scope,’ agrees Professor McKenna. ‘It’s unique internationally.’


www.ox.ac.uk