Does cancer research focus on areas of importance to patients?

The majority of research ideas are proposed by clinicians or scientists and little is currently known about which areas of research patients feel are important. We performed a 4 week pilot patient survey at the Royal Marsden (a specialist cancer centre) to investigate patients’ views on priorities for cancer research. A total of 780 patients completed the survey and the top research priorities were identified as: detection and prevention of cancer, scientific understanding, curative treatment and personalised treatment. The top research priorities were remarkably consistent across age, gender and a variety of tumour types. We believe that patients’ views should be considered alongside those of clinicians and researchers when devising research proposals and strategies.