The aim of this research is to use medical records, information about lifestyle and information from people genes from UKBiobank to understand more about patients with cancer and how this impacts their future health and survival after diagnosis.
The number of people diagnosed with cancer is increasing each year. Cancer is the leading cause of death in the UK and globally. The increasing numbers increase costs and the pressure on healthcare systems. There has been great advancement in treatments for many cancers however clinical trials are costly and take time to complete. We can use data already collected such as data from UKBiobank to provide answers about cancer patients, their treatments and survival.
Using UKBiobank we will determine what diseases, medications and lifestyle factors patients with cancer had before they were diagnosed. This will help identify risk factors that can be used to predict how long cancer patients live after diagnosis. We will use information on cancer treatments to compare which ones have better survival for patients and use information from people genes to identify genes that may have better or worse outcomes for patients.
For this project, we will use a variety of statistical methods and machine-learning approaches. It is important to use different methods to increase confidence in results by giving a complete picture of cancer patients which can lead to better treatments and ultimately benefit patients.
This project is in the public interest as cancer research is crucial to improve the prevention, detection and treatment of different cancers, and ensure that patients live longer and better-quality lives. The project duration plans to take at least 36 months.!