The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is developing a new project that will bring together valuable information about cancer care, treatment and outcomes to support future research and help improve services for patients.
The project, supported by Civic Health Innovation Labs at the University of Liverpool, will use information that is already collected by the NHS about cancer diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes. This will be held securely and used by approved researchers to better understand what works best for diverse groups of patients.
Clatterbridge treats around 39,000 patients each year and provides specialist cancer care for people across Cheshire and Merseyside, a population of about 2.4 million.
By safely joining up several types of cancer information, researchers hope to build a clearer picture of how people respond to treatment. This could help identify why some patients do better than others, support more personalised care, and guide the development of new tools to help diagnose and treat cancer.
The first stage will focus on information about cancer outcomes, chemotherapy and other drug treatments, and radiotherapy. Later stages may include scans, test results, pathology reports, prescribing information and information reported directly by patients about their health and wellbeing.
The project is expected to support a wide range of research, including studies that use real-world NHS information to understand cancer care outside clinical trials. It could also help researchers develop and test artificial intelligence tools that may support cancer diagnosis and treatment planning in the future.
Paula Pickford, Chief Data and Analytical Officer at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to use the information we already collect in the NHS in a safe and responsible way to improve cancer care. By bringing together high-quality data from across our services, we can help researchers ask better questions, understand patients’ experiences more clearly, and develop new approaches that could make a real difference for people affected by cancer.”
Funding for the project has come from the North West Secure Data Environment Data Accelerator Fund for Novel and Emerging Assets, a £750,000 scheme launched in February 2026 to support better use of health and care data for public benefit across the region.
Clatterbridge will share £370,000 of funding with four other projects across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Zharain Bawa, Operations Lead for the North West SDE, said: “These projects have the potential to make a real difference for patients and communities by supporting research that is grounded in the needs and experiences of local people.”
