UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project

UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project
Founded18 March 2020 (2020-03-18)
Key people
Gary Middleton, Jean-Baptiste Cazier, Rachel Kerr, Lennard Lee
Websiteukcoronaviruscancermonitoring.com ukcovidcancerprogramme.org//

The UK Coronavirus Cancer Programme or UKCCP[1] is one of the longest running UK pandemic research programmes to safeguard, monitor and protect individuals living with cancer from COVID-19 across the United Kingdom.[2]

The project launched on 26 March 2020[3] and is one of the first emergency COVID-19 reporting projects in cancer patients in the world. At the time, there was no way of tracking cancer patients with COVID-19 and the interactions of the COVID-19 virus and cancer and cancer treatment was unclear, with limited reporting based on small patient studies.[4][5] As a result, the reporting project launched as part of the United Kingdom's COVID-19 emergency response.

The objective from the project is to identify and learn from every case of COVID-19 in cancer patients through the United Kingdom's 86 cancer centres.[6] To date, this UK pandemic Programme has successfully delivered 10 research projects and published over 15 research papers.

It has been successful in delivering meaningful change for cancer patients during the pandemic including:-

1. That chemotherapy delivery was safe for patients during the pandemic

2. The benefits of COVID screening to reduce risk of outbreaks in radiotherapy/chemotherapy units and cancer centres.

3. Vaccine effectiveness in cancer patients and the need for boosters.

4. The need to protect blood cancer patients and those on chemotherapy.

5. The importance of COVID-19 antibody testing as a risk prediction tool.

This research programme has been unique in being highly inclusive in approach. Over 250 oncologists have contributed to the project since its formation, drawing expertise from the network of 86 cancer centres.

  1. ^ "Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project UK | Home". UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring.
  2. ^ Anil, Iris; Arnold, Roland; Benkwitz-Beford, Sam; Branford, Simon; Campton, Naomi; Cazier, Jean-Baptiste; et al. (15 April 2020). "The UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project: protecting patients with cancer in the era of COVID-19". The Lancet Oncology. 21 (5): 622–624. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30230-8. ISSN 1470-2045. PMC 7159870. PMID 32304634.
  3. ^ "UK oncologists launch joint project to track cancer patients with COVID-19". www.birmingham.ac.uk.
  4. ^ Liang, Wenhua; Guan, Weijie; Chen, Ruchong; Wang, Wei; Li, Jianfu; Xu, Ke; et al. (1 March 2020). "Cancer patients in SARS-CoV-2 infection: a nationwide analysis in China". The Lancet Oncology. 21 (3): 335–337. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30096-6. ISSN 1470-2045. PMC 7159000. PMID 32066541.
  5. ^ Yu, Jing; Ouyang, Wen; Chua, Melvin L. K.; Xie, Conghua (25 March 2020). "SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Patients With Cancer at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Wuhan, China". JAMA Oncology. 6 (7): 1108–1110. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.0980. PMC 7097836. PMID 32211820.
  6. ^ "Cancer Coronavirus Monitoring Project | About This Reporting Project".