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The Continuous Update Programme was established to maintain a central database of the accumulated evidence related to food, nutrition, physical activity and cancer following the publication of the World Cancer Research Fund / American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) Second Expert Report ‘Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective’.

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Categories

  • Cancer Cancer
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Medical Research Medical Research
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Older People Older People
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)
    • Other Other

    Situation

    In November 2007 the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) launched its Second Expert Report ‘Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective’. This unique project funded by WCRF UK, together with other members of the WCRF global network, brought together and evaluated all the relevant research in the area of cancer prevention through food, nutrition and physical activity published over the past 60 years, and is the most authoritative source of information in this area. It demonstrated clearly that the choices we make in relation to diet and physical activity have a significant effect on our risk of developing cancer. Due to the growth in research into cancer prevention it was realised that a static report could never truly remain up to date and would make any future reports far more complex and costly to produce. The Continuous Update Programme was established to maintain a central database of the accumulated evidence related to food, nutrition, physical activity and cancer. It is based on a live system of scientific data that is updated on an ongoing basis with any new research on cancer prevention published worldwide. This allows us to continuously monitor the research on cancer prevention and regularly review our messages. The database is one of, if not the largest resource of existing scientific literature on food nutrition, physical activity and cancer in the world. Each year our Continuous Update Panel of experts will receive the reports from the team at Imperial College, where the project is based, as well as a summary paper prepared by the WCRF secretariat. Once the database is fully up to date for all the cancer types the panel will evaluate whether the Recommendations produced by WCRF/AICR in our Second Expert Report need to be revised to take into account any significant new evidence. This vital process will ensure that our cancer prevention messages are always based on the most up to date scientific research. They will also allow us to continue giving people the best possible information available so they can make the choices that will reduce their risk of developing cancer. The central database will continue to be updated, new analyses undertaken and reports prepared. In addition, once the central database has been fully updated with all cancer types, it will be made available to the wider scientific community. This will allow the vital information it holds regarding the prevention of cancer by food, nutrition and physical activity to be accessed anywhere in the world. Not only will this help spread our cancer prevention messages to a larger audience but will help researchers determine which areas of cancer prevention require further investigation. This, and the fact that much more research is being carried out in the area of cancer prevention, means that in future even more published studies will need to be analysed and entered into the central database. On average, 400 scientific papers on food, nutrition, physical activity and cancer from various different study types were published each year in scientific journals in the period 2003 to 2005 and it is estimated this will increase to 700 per year by 2013. At present the database manager is looking to make the process faster with our estimate being that one research assistant can process two studies per day. Currently there are four members in the WCRF-funded Imperial College team, but with the predicted increase in research additional staff will need to be recruited in order to update the database over the next five years with all the new research published since 2006. Budget The project costings includes salaries, which make up the majority of the costs due to the considerable amount of labour intensive work required to analyse and process the individual research papers as they are published. The projected costs relating to the expansion of the team will depend on the ability to raise additional funds for this project. Currently WCRF has budget to fund an additional research assistant in year one of the five-year strategic plan as well as the existing team of four. However, the immediate priority is to find funding (£40,000) for the sixth member of the team in year one and then subsidise the envisaged costs to sustain this project in future years. Year 1 £257,388 Team of 6 Year 2 £312,343 Team of 7 Year 3 £371,741 Team of 8 Year 4 £436,399 Team of 9 Year 5 £463,756 Team of 9 Total £1,896,310

    Solution

    100%
    Categories

  • Cancer Cancer
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Medical Research Medical Research
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Older People Older People
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)
    • Other Other