The University of Liverpool Lung Cancer Research Group, led by Professor John Field, has made a significant contribution to improvements in the early detection of lung cancer through theLiverpool Lung Project (LLP) and the UKLS low-dose CT lung cancer screening trial.
Data from and about individuals who have taken part in the Liverpool Lung Project was used to develop the LLP lung cancer risk score, now being used in the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme to identify those at greatest risk of lung cancer. This data includes not only personal data provided by the participants who have consented to take part, but questionnaire data that helps identify risk factors and data the participants gave permission to collected from NHS clinical records (such as cancer diagnosis and causes of death). Data has been collected for over 15,000 participants since 1998.
It is vital that such data is stored securely, that it is accurate, that it is updated when new information becomes available, and that it is stored in such a way that it is searchable. We ensure that by storing all the data in a specialised database in secure University of Liverpool datacentres. This means it can be used in research at the University of Liverpool, including that linked to samples collected LLP. After anonymisation it is also used by researchers around the world to better understand the causes of lung cancer and to identify new way to detect or treat lung disease.
With this generous donation of £10,000 from Cancer Research and Genetics UK we can ensure continuing improvements to data security with updated database software, so the team can continue to securely and accurately use the data for research.
Mark Horne MCIOF
Head of Philanthropy
University of Liverpool, Foundation Building, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L69 7ZX
www.liverpool.ac.uk