Chelsea, London, Surrey, United Kingdom of Great Britain

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OVERVIEW

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) is a world leading research centre in the UK located in Chelsea, London and Sutton, Surrey. It was founded in 1909 as the Cancer Hospital Research Institute, a small research laboratory within the Royal Marsden, which was known at the time as the Free Cancer Hospital.

It later moved to its own premises adjacent to the Royal Marsden in Chelsea, and was known for a while as the Chester Beatty Research Institute. In 1952 it assuming its current name, shortly before it, together with the Royal Marsden, expanded to a second site in Sutton.

Throughout its history the ICR has contributed to discoveries in cancer biology that have shaped understanding of the disease, and has developed clinical innovations working closely with the Royal Marsden.

Major discoveries where the ICR played a leading role include demonstrating that a pure chemical substance can cause cancer; proposing DNA damaging alkylation as a mechanism by which some carcinogenic chemicals give rise to cancer; and demonstrating that cancer is a genetic disease based on mutational events.

The immunological role of the thymus, as the repository of a special class of lymphocytes (T cells), was also identified at the ICR – a discovery that helped pave the way for modern immunotherapy.

ICR scientists were also involved in the discovery of N-RAS, one of the earliest identified oncogenes, and the BRCA2 gene, responsible for inherited predisposition to breast, ovarian, prostate and other cancers. Scientists at the ICR showed the connection between harmful mutations in the BRCA2 gene and the operation of DNA repair pathways in cancer cells, which led to the development of PARP inhibitors, which target DNA repair pathways of cancer cells.

In the early 2000s, research at the ICR led to the characterisation of the B-RAF oncogene, and showed that it could cause up to 70% of melanomas, thereby speeding up the development of new drugs.

The association with the Royal Marsden has enabled the ICR to focus on clinical applications of its research. In the 1940s it set up a clinical chemotherapy research unit in partnership with the Royal Marsden – the first such unit in Europe.

Busulfan, chlorambucil, and melphalan were among the drugs discovered at this unit in the 1950s. In later decades ICR researchers were instrumental in the development of a number of important cancer drugs including carboplatin and abiraterone. In 2020, the ICR opened the Centre for Cancer Drug Cancer Discovery to develop treatments that overcome cancer’s ability to evolve and become resistant.