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Cancer Research-UK Epidemiology & Genetics Group

The Cancer Research UK Epidemiology and Genetics Group is based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Institute of Cancer Research. It comprises cancer epidemiologists, statisticians, laboratory-based scientists, research nurses and other support staff. Our main research activities are:

  • Genetic studies on low-penetrance breast cancer susceptibility genes including national collections of bilateral breast cancer cases and their relatives, other multiple case families, unselected cases and unaffected women. Studies on insulin-like growth factors, breast density and breast cancer risk has also been set up in a prospective cohort of women with annual mammograms from age 40 years.

  • Studies on human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer include a randomised trial of HPV testing in routine cervical screening involving 25000 women and a national case-control study of cervical screening histories of all British women who die of cervical cancer before age 75 years.

  • Work on mesothelioma and asbestos exposure includes a national mesothelioma case-control study in which patients are interviewed and lung samples for asbestos fibre analysis are obtained after death, and a study of asbestos fibres in lung samples from pneumothorax patients. These studies will provide an estimate of the continuing hazard from asbestos in the construction industry and to the general population.

Others areas of research include: follow-up (in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Porto) of 10,000 babies (and their parents) born in the north of Portugal to investigate determinants of pre- and post-natal growth; follow-up of over 25,000 British commercial airline pilots and air traffic controllers to examine, among other issues, the long-term health effects of exposure to high levels of cosmic radiation; examination (in collaborations with colleagues from the Royal Free & University College London Medical School) of mammographic density and breast cancer risk in relation to early life nutrition and growth in a cohort of British babies who have been followed-up regularly since their birth in 1946.