Chelsea, London and Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom of Great Britain

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OVERVIEW

The Royal Marsden is a leading comprehensive cancer centre in the UK, located at two sites, in Chelsea, London and Sutton, Surrey. It was the first hospital in the world dedicated to both the study and treatment of cancer.

It was founded in 1851 as the Free Cancer Hospital by a doctor, William Marsden, following the death of his wife, Elizabeth Ann, from cancer. The opportunity to carry out research ‒ to classify tumours, understand the causes, and find new treatments ‒ was central to its mission from the outset, as Marsden made clear at the time, saying: “Now gentlemen, I want to found a hospital for the treatment of cancer, and for the study of the disease, for at the present time we know absolutely nothing about it.”

The hospital started out as a dispensary, located in Westminster, London ‒ a place where drugs were prepared and prescribed for palliative treatment for outpatients. The need for inpatient care soon became clear and in 1862 it moved to custom-built premises on Fulham Road in Chelsea, where it still stands. One hundred years later, in 1963, a second, larger hospital was opened 10 miles away in Sutton.

The close proximity of research and care was a feature of the Royal Marsden from the start. In 1909 the Cancer Hospital Research Institute ‒ a small laboratory within the hospital premises ‒was established. This would ultimately expand to become the internationally renowned Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). That proximity was preserved as the research institute expanded to its own premises on Fulham Road (1939) and later to Sutton (1954). As a consequence, the Royal Marsden has played an important role in translating cancer research from bench to bedside. This includes trials of many new cancer drugs, and developing techniques in imaging, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine.