High-Impact Science

Research is like fitting together the pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle

New discoveries are the pieces in a complex puzzle

Cancer Research UK is the world’s largest charity dedicated to cancer research. Virtually all of the money we have to spend on our vital work comes from public donations – from a few coins dropped in a collecting tin or a skirt sold in one of our charity shops to larger donations and legacies.

We are on the way to beating cancer, and there is good progress being made. Half of all people diagnosed with cancer today will survive for more than five years – a significant increase compared to just a few decades ago. And ten-year survival rates have doubled since the 70s.

Over the past century, our researchers have made consistent progress in the fight against cancer.  From studies of the intricate workings of molecules within cells to the results of large-scale clinical trials of treatments, every result helps to deepen our understanding of cancer, and highlight new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat it.

In our series of High-Impact Science posts, we want to highlight some of the most significant scientific papers that Cancer Research UK -funded scientists have published.

We’ve used a number of criteria to define “high-impact”:

  • Discoveries that helped to shape a field of research, overturned previously accepted ideas, or solved a mystery.
  • Papers published in journals with a high impact factor, such as Science, Nature or Cell.
  • Papers that have been referred to by many other researchers in their own publications (citation impact).  Such papers often describe the first time that something (for example, a gene) was identified, or the first time it was linked to cancer.
  • Research that has paved the way for the development of new treatments for cancer.
  • Papers describing the results of important clinical trials that have changed the way that cancer patients are treated.
  • Research identifying new causes of cancer or the significance of certain risk factors.
  • And finally, research that we thought would make an interesting story!

Over the coming months we’ll be discussing some of these research papers, explaining what the scientists did, what they found, and the impact it has had on cancer research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

We believe that through research, we will beat cancer. We hope that these examples of our High-Impact Science will show that we are getting there.