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What we do

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the UK, are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

First launched in November 2022, the Cancer Healthcare Goals programme aims to maximise and direct global industrial investment for the development and acceleration of new cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the UK through: 1) providing research investments to support the development of innovations in the early stages of the development pathway

2) supporting industry to accelerate cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the latter stages of development into the NHS.

To date the programme has:

• Launched the . This competition, delivered in collaboration with the NIHR i4i programme, aims to support the clinical validation and evaluation of breakthrough technologies that can increase the proportion of cancers which are detected earlier in the disease course and/or target health inequalities in stage of cancer diagnosis.
• Contributed £5 million towards the second round of Innovate UK’s . This contribution will co-fund a portfolio of cancer projects, aiming to develop digital and data enabled tools, as well as multi-modal approaches, for more accurate cancer diagnosis and treatment stratification.
• Co-funded and awarded a £9m grant (with the Medical Research Council) to the . The MANIFEST consortium is led by the Francis Crick Institute and is composed of academia, the NHS and industry partners. MANIFEST aims to expand and advance UK immunotherapy R&D capabilities, supporting better targeting and improved efficacy of these treatments. The consortium will develop a broad utility platform to generate insights into patient response, adverse effects and resistance to immunotherapy, and carry out exemplar project(s) to demonstrate the platform’s utility.
• Funded the secretariat for the . The UKCCCR will convene expertise across the cancer research landscape to identify strategic priorities and cross-cutting areas of unmet need. Hosted within the Association of Medical Research Charities, the Collaborative will provide coordination for the cancer clinical research groups, so they can operate together more effectively and support the work of smaller cancer research charities.
• Awarded £1.5 million of funding for a real-world, independent, multi-site evaluation comparing Skin Analytics’ Deep Ensemble for Recognition of Malignancy (DERM) with Standard of Care. DERM is an AI-based skin lesion analysis medical device which has the potential to free up dermatology capacity and reduce waiting times by autonomously triaging patients with benign lesions away from the urgent suspected skin cancer pathway.
• Launched a funding call in collaboration with the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme to conduct a research study to evaluate the clinical utility and cost effectiveness Multi Cancer Detection (MCD) tests in patients presenting to primary care with non-specific abdominal symptoms. A MCD is a non-invasive diagnostic tool which is able to detect the presence of cancer markers within a sample such as blood. They are recognised as a potential priority breakthrough technology for commissioning into the NHS within the National Cancer Plan. The application process ended in January, and applications were reviewed by the HTA assessment committee in March. The awarded study is currently undergoing contracting and will be officially announced in the near future.

Who we are

The Cancer Healthcare Goals programme is chaired by Professor Peter Johnson.

Cancer remains a leading cause of life years lost and of public concern. We see a rapidly-expanding range of opportunities to find cancers at an earlier stage and to bring new types of treatment to bear through working with partners in the Life Sciences, and the Cancer Healthcare Goals programme has enhanced collaboration between industry and the research ecosystem of the NHS as its primary goal.

Professor Peter Johnson, October 2023.

Peter Johnson is a Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust. He has been the NHS England National Clinical Director for Cancer since 2019. Prior to this he was Director of the Francis Crick Institute Cancer Research Network (2017-2019) and Chief Clinician at Cancer Research UK (2008-2017). He has a career in academic oncology and extensive publication record spanning over 25 years with research interests in lymphoma and expertise in immuno-oncology. In 2018 he established one of the first dedicated centres for cancer immunology in the UK in Southampton. 

Further information and relevant links

• Government to use Vaccine Taskforce model to tackle health challenges.

• Chancellor reveals life sciences growth package to fire up economy.

• Major agreement to deliver new cancer vaccine trials.

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• New government tech deals boost the business of cancer detection.

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Contact details

You can contact the Cancer Healthcare Goals by email: healthcaregoals@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk.