We are funded as the Cancer Survival Group by a range of charities and government institutions in the UK and overseas, to quantify, describe and explain patterns and trends in cancer survival by socio-economic group, geographic area and ethnicity, in collaboration with many research partners in the UK and around the world. We develop methodology and tools for survival analysis. We maintain tools for cancer survival analysis that we make freely accessible online.

In August 2008, we published the first world-wide comparison of cancer survival, including data for 1.9 million patients diagnosed up to 1999 with a cancer of the breast (F), colon, rectum or prostate in 31 countries on five continents (CONCORD study).

In March 2015, we initiated global surveillance of time trends in cancer survival, by analysing individual data for 25.7 million patients diagnosed during the 15 years 1995-2009 with one of 10 common cancers, in collaboration with 279 cancer registries in 67 countries world-wide (CONCORD-2 study).

In January 2018, we updated the global surveillance of cancer survival trends with individual data on over 37 million adults and children diagnosed during 2000-2014 with one of 18 cancers in 71 countries (CONCORD-3). Selected survival estimates have been included by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development in Health at a Glance 2017 as indicators of the quality of healthcare for cancer in 48 countries.

CONCORD-4 has been in progress since 2023. We will examine trends in cancer survival for adults diagnosed at some point during 1990-2022. This will enable examination of 30-year trends in cancer survival world-wide. Data for 2020-2022 will enable examination of the impact of the COVID pandemic on stage at diagnosis and short-term survival in many countries.

More than 350 registries, covering a combined population of 1.2 billion people in over 70 countries, have provided anonymised individual records for over 90 million adults and more than 650,000 children who were diagnosed during 1990-2022. Quality control for almost 7,000 data files is in progress.

In July 2024, we launched the CONCORD-Lancet Global Commission on Cancer, alongside CONCORD-4. We aim to show how long-term, global, collaborative science can contribute to effective policy-making, and how population-based cancer registries can continue to provide reliable evidence for cancer control strategy. We will collaborate with the 720 members of the CONCORD Working Group and the 25 Commissioners, who comprise 25 scientists, cancer survivors and policy-makers with experience in cancer control. We will show how real-world data on cancer incidence and survival can provide timely evidence for action, and how public understanding of the role of population-based cancer registries can be improved. We hope to publish the Commission in 2025 or early 2026.