Royal Marsden launches world-first AI cancer lab to give every NHS patient a personalised treatment plan

The Royal Marsden Centre for Cancer Genomics has opened in Sutton as the UK's first NHS facility to combine DNA, RNA and tumour data in composite biomarker testing, feeding results through AI to produce an individualised treatment score for each patient. Rather than requiring patients to travel to a major cancer centre, the lab will serve as a national testing hub, processing samples sent from anywhere in the UK. Michael Hubank, who leads clinical genomics at the Royal Marsden as its scientific director, said the approach moves the NHS away from a 'one-size-fits-all' model and toward continuous monitoring that adapts as a patient's cancer changes over time.

Finance came from the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, backed by an infrastructure grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Where conventional biomarker testing focuses on a single genetic marker, the composite method combines genetic mutations, immune signatures and imaging data, using machine learning to identify patterns across all three.

Blood tests that measure circulating tumour DNA have already shown promising results in clinical trials, and the lab will widen access to those trials for patients throughout the country.