UK cancer research is helping to deliver significant clinical improvements for cancer patients, according to a study published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Researchers analysed 43 clinical guidelines for cancer from the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), and found that papers from UK-based cancer researchers are cited nearly three times more often than would be expected.
These guidelines form the basis of the clinical care given to cancer patients and are devised from an evidence base which includes peer-reviewed research.
The study reveals that Cancer Research UK supported over one-third of the clinical trials which were cited as evidence in these guidelines - more than the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, or the UK government.
Researchers from universities, hospitals and institutes based in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Glasgow were the most frequently cited.
Lead author Professor Richard Sullivan, who conducted this study when he was director of clinical programmes at Cancer Research UK, and is now at the London School of Economics and the European Cancer Research Managers Foundation , said: "Our study demonstrates the real practical impact of research funding in the UK and shows that cancer research in the UK is punching above its weight.
"Even taking into account the fact that UK clinical guidelines are inevitably going to be skewed in favour of UK-based research because of the make-up of our healthcare services, we still found that the impact of UK cancer research on clinical practice was disproportionately higher than would be expected - which is a credit to the exceptionally strong research base that we have in this country.
"We also found indirect evidence that UK cancer research has as impact internationally - particularly in Western Europe."