Welcome to the Childhood Cancer Research Group

The Childhood Cancer Research Group (CCRG) is based in the University of Oxford. It is administratively part of the University Department of Paediatrics and has offices in The New Richards Building on the Old Road Campus in Headington, Oxford. The group's core funding comes from the Department of Health, the National Cancer Intelligence Network, the Scottish Executive, and the medical research charity, Children with Leukaemia (now Children with Cancer, UK).

The CCRG houses the National Registry of Childhood Tumours (NRCT), a population based register of malignancies and benign brain tumours diagnosed in children aged under 15 years who live in England, Wales or Scotland (and Northern Ireland, since 1993) at the time of diagnosis.

The NRCT is one of the largest and most important specialist childhood cancer registries in the world. It is the NCIN lead tumour registry for the delivery of national childhood cancer intelligence for England. Its work plan is annually agreed with its oversight group, the NCIN Childhood and Teenage Young Adult Site Specific Clinical Reference Group.

The CCRG's research activities and responsibilities include therefore:

• using the NRCT and its linked datasets to fulfil the basic public health functions of a NCIN lead tumour registry through description and analyses of trends and distributions of cancer incidence, mortality, survival and hospitalisation. To distribute NRCT data to a wide variety of potential users who make legitimate requests, within the constraints to data release to which the CCRG is subject. Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland interests are accommodated within general publications or by specific requests.
• a developing programme of laboratory-based research, integrated with use of NRCT data, and involvement in field studies based on family interviews and tissue sample collection (e.g. the International Study of non-CNS Embryonal Tumours, ISET).

The CCRG has a Scientific Advisory Group which meets annually face-to-face, and via additional teleconferences, to provide a forum for discussion about its activities and research.

Latest News and Events

The CCRG is currently updating investigations of cancer excesses in the vicinity of Seascale and Dounreay. Follow this link for further details of this study.