Guy’s and St Thomas’ (GSTT) is a large NHS multi-specialty trust in central London, covering 1.3 million people over six Boroughs. Within this Trust, Guy’s Cancer Centre looks after >8,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients from the ethnically diverse population of South East London on an annual basis.
Guy’s Cancer RWE has been developed and implemented as a joint venture between the TOUR team of King’s College London and colleagues at Guy’s Cancer Centre. This collaboration between epidemiologists, data scientists and clinicians uses routinely collected clinical patient data from anyone investigated for a potential diagnosis of cancer (i.e. Guy’s Cancer Cohort), in an anonymised format, to guide quality improvement/research and patient care (Refs). It 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. At the centre of this work, we have staff and patients who have extensively engaged with us through co-production. This is invaluable to us; without it, our research will not accurately reflect their needs and priorities, ensure methods are feasible and appropriate and information is relevant and accessible.
More information can be found here.
About us
Since the value of RWE has been recognised, Guy’s Cancer has optimised the data collection methodology for routinely collected clinical cancer data by establishing a Research Ethics Committee approved research database for our cancer patients. The initiation of Guy’s Cancer Cohort provides valuable infrastructure to answer a wide variety of research questions of a clinical, mechanistic, and supportive care nature. Clinical research using this database will result in improved patient safety and experience.
Guy’s Cancer Cohort will amplify our RWE data science capability and allow progress answering challenging cancer research questions. The cohort will accelerate evidence generation through provision of observational studies that can generate new hypotheses and support our own clinical audits as well as policy makers. Guy’s Cancer RWE will drive world class patient centred research.
Our RWE Strategy is based on the below five pillars:
- Clinical impact (e.g. clinical audit, benchmarking, patient outcomes)
- Academic output (e.g. clinical epidemiology, molecular epidemiology)
- Data infrastructure (e.g. Guy’s Cancer Cohort)
- Education (e.g. study design and statistical analyses)
- RWE embedded in the Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) culture (e.g. dedicated research time for clinical colleagues)
An example of the impact of our RWE data can be found in our recent publications on COVID-19 and cancer: Link.
Get in touch
Guy’s Cancer RWE is led jointly by Dr Anne Rigg and Prof Mieke Van Hemelrijck. The Translational Oncology and Urology Research team (TOUR) of Prof Van Hemelrijck provides tailored support in terms of database management, study design, epidemiological guidance, patient and public involvement, and statistical analyses:
Dr Beth Russell – Research Associate with expertise in cancer epidemiology
Dr Charlotte Moss – Project Coordinator and Research Associate with expertise in implementation sciences
Miss Maria Monroy Iglesias – PhD student with expertise in the Rapid Diagnostic Clinic
Dr Gincy George – Research Associate with expertise in pharmaco-epidemiology
Miss Ailbhe Lawlor – Research Assistant
Miss Jasmine Handford – Clinical database manager for Head and Neck Cancer
Miss Saran Green – Patient and public involvement/engagement manager
If you are interested in finding out more about Guy’s Cancer RWE or interested in using data from Guy’s Cancer Cohort, please contact the DATA-CAN team.
Postal address
Guy’s Cancer Real World Evidence
Comprehensive Cancer Centre
TOUR Offices – Dr Van Hemelrijck
3rd Floor, Bermondsey Wing,
Guy’s Hospital
Great Maze Pond
London SE1 9RT