Epidemiology at the University of Birmingham, to which the Centre is a key contributor, had 60% of research activity rated as either world leading or internationally excellent, in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Most children with cancer in the UK are treated by clinicians who are members of the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG), formerly the United Kingdom Children’s Cancer Study Group (UKCCSG). As a result of the Director being a full member of this organisation, and also being a member of its Late Effects Group (with responsibilities concerning CCLG policy in relation to the care of survivors) excellent links are maintained with the clinicians treating and following-up children with cancer. There are also close collaborative research links with the Childhood Cancer Research Group, based at the University of Oxford, which maintains the population-based National Registry of Childhood Tumours. The Centre is well known internationally through its publications and attendance at most important meetings concerned with survivors of childhood cancer. Collaborative international studies of the adverse consequences of irradiation in childhood have been undertaken including data relating to survivors of the atomic bombs in Japan. There is an established international collaborative programme of studies of the incidence and aetiology of second primary neoplasms after childhood cancer in Britain and France ongoing funded by the European Union. Good links exist with the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study which is ongoing in North America and co-ordinated from St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. In addition, there are international collaborative initiatives, in particular an international study of the rates and causes of second primary tumours after Wilms’ tumour is being developed and an international collaborative study of the joint influences of radiation and genotype on breast cancer risk is on-going and is funded by the European Union under the 6th Framework Programme.
The Centre also currently has a Cancer Research UK Graduate Training Fellowship in Cancer Public Health and Epidemiology.