COVID-19 and cancer

The TOUR team has been working with Guy’s Cancer Real World Evidence to establish an oncology database for COVID-19. Our collaborations have already resulted in a variety of research publications. The team are also working with members of the COVID-19 and Cancer Global Taskforce, to deliver a project aiming to develop revised priorities for cancer research in low- to middle-income countries, given the emergent public health and economic context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Explore our COVID-19 and cancer research

Uro-Oncology Programme

King’s Health Partners’ Uro-Oncology Cancer Programme is a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and scientists with expertise across the fields of epidemiology, bioinformatics and statistics, clinical medicine, cancer care, medical imaging and radionuclide therapy, cell and molecular biology and immunology, working together towards a common goal: to make life-altering discoveries for people affected by a urological cancer (i.e. prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular, or penile cancer). This Programme enables us to research all aspects of the cancers, which will create new knowledge and underpin our development of new treatments, with an aim of individualised medicine.

Prostate Cancer

The TOUR team conducts a variety of research project for prostate cancer ranging from early detection, to precision medicine, and survivorship. We are involved in large international Consortia such as the MRC Stratified Medicine Consortium ReIMAGINE, the Movember Foundation Global Action Plans, the IMI funded PIONEER Consortium of the European Association of Urology, the UK Biobank as well as international collaborations with the Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University in Sweden.

Bladder Cancer

Also for bladder cancer, the TOUR team is involved in a wide variety of research projects involving collaborators from the Universities of Aberdeen and Birmingham as well as the Universities of Lund and Uppsala in Sweden. Moreover, we are working closely with patient advocacy organisations to develop strategies to improve the patient experience of those diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Kidney Cancer

Together with collaborators from the Royal Marsden and the Royal Free, the TOUR team is working on clinical research aimed to improve the experience of those diagnosed with kidney cancer. We currently focus on how to better support patients with their treatment decisions options.

Trials

The TOUR team also includes a clinical research team which runs a series of trials and observational studies ranging from biomarkers studies to registry studies and clinical interventions including supervised exercise programmes.

Real World Evidence Programme

Guy’s Cancer Real World Evidence (RWE) Programme has been established as a strategy to improve and internalise rich datasets within Guy’s Cancer, thereby amplifying our RWE data science capabilities and allowing us to work on challenging cancer research questions. The Programme has been developed and implemented as a joint venture between the TOUR team of King’s College London and colleagues in the Oncology department of Guy’s Hospital.

Other cancer types

In addition to urological cancers, the TOUR team also works with various colleagues at Guy’s Cancer and internationally on other tumour types. We are currently working on the effect of the immune system on carcinogenesis as well as clinical outcomes of gastro-intestinal cancers, lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

Patient and public involvement

The TOUR team is committed to PPI at all stages of research. Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) means actively working in partnership with patients and members of the public to plan, manage, design and carry out research. It is “Research being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them” - INVOLVE.