STFC Cancer Diagnosis Network+

这项建议旨在建立一个多学科社区，以应对癌症诊断方面的挑战，癌症诊断是本世纪最重要的社会和经济全球挑战之一。癌症占全球死亡人数的六分之一，这使其成为全球第二大死因。除了这种疾病对患者及其家人的破坏性影响外，每年全球癌症造成的总经济损失估计约为1万亿GB。这一挑战在我们老龄化的社会将变得更加普遍，因为癌症的发病率随着年龄的增长而显著上升，而细胞修复机制也变得不那么有效。在我们老龄化的全球人口中，降低癌症死亡率可以通过更早的诊断和更准确的疾病分期来实现。Network+社区将开发旨在改善患者生活质量、增加患者存活机会并降低相关癌症服务成本的技术和技巧。Network+将侧重于(1)早期诊断、(2)精确和定量成像、(3)多模式技术和(4)应用于成像和生物信息学的数据科学技术的四个主题。通过与这些专题特别相关的核心STFC科学方案发展的专门知识包括开发高分辨率和高灵敏度探测器、多光谱探测器、图像分析算法和数据挖掘技术。该网络+将主办以挑战为主导的多学科研讨会，并为大约16项范围确定研究、5至10个概念验证项目和2个共同资助的博士生提供资金。它还将通过旅行奖励、跨学科安置和培训来发展早期职业研究人员的研究能力。此外，还将编写立场文件和情况说明书。该网络将积极与外部合作伙伴接触，以建立成员资格。获得资助的项目的结果将通过通讯、网站和网络会议结束时分发给成员，网络会议也将成为讨论未来潜在合作机会的论坛。该网站还将用于向所有利益攸关方展示活动。

This proposal seeks to establish a multidisciplinary community to address challenges in the diagnosis of cancer, which is one of the most important societal and economic global challenges of this century. Cancer accounts for 1 in every 6 deaths worldwide, which makes it the second leading cause of death globally. In addition to the devastating impact of this disease on patients and their families, the total annual global economic cost of cancer is estimated to be approximately £1 trillion. The challenge will become even more prevalent in our ageing society, since the incidence of cancer rises significantly with age, whilst cellular repair mechanisms also become less effective. Reducing cancer mortality rates in our ageing global population could be achieved by earlier diagnosis and more accurate staging of disease. The Network+ community will develop technologies and techniques that aim to improve patient quality of life, increase the chance of patient survival and reduce associated cancer services costs. The Network+ will focus on four themes of (1) early diagnosis, (2) precision and quantitative imaging, (3) multimodal techniques and (4) data science techniques applied to imaging and bioinformatics. The expertise developed through the core STFC science programmes that are particularly relevant to these topics are the development of high resolution and high sensitivity detectors, multispectral detectors, algorithms for image analysis and data mining techniques. The network+ will host multidisciplinary challenge-led workshops and provide funding for approximately 16 scoping studies, 5 to 10 proof of concept projects and 2 co-funded PhD studentships. It will also develop the research capacity of early career researchers through travel awards, discipline-hopping placements and training. In addition, position papers and fact sheets will be produced. The network will actively engage with external partners to build membership. The results from the funded projects will be disseminated to members by newsletters, a website and at an end of network conference, which will also be a forum to discuss potential future collaborative opportunities. The website will also be used to showcase events to all stakeholders.