New Integrated Pathology Unit to speed cancer diagnosis 17 May 2023

Cancer diagnosis and treatment are set to be accelerated with the opening of England’s first Integrated Pathology Unit (IPU). The new facility will apply pioneering digital imaging and artificial intelligence to pathology, assisting clinical trial research programmes focused on developing tests for cancer. 

 The centre is run jointly by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and its hospital partner The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. 

 The IPU is based in the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Centre for Molecular Pathology in Sutton, Surrey. Scientists are already digitising tissue samples taken from patients being treated at The Royal Marsden, or patients undergoing clinical trials in other cancer centres around the UK, plus tissue research images generated in the IPU or other ICR research laboratories.  

The IPU has been funded by the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, the ICR and The (NIHR) Royal Marsden and ICR Biomedical Research Centre.