We'll use AI to spot more prostate cancer, says Science Secretary
Peter Kyle told The Telegraph that the Government is investing £168m on initiatives to use public data better and one major goal is to improve cancer screening on the NHS.
A world-leading initiative led by Cancer Research UK has been given £10m in funding to improve cancer screening methods by identifying the most at-risk people and offering them personalised tests.
The funding will 'develop AI-powered tools that can predict cancer risk', Mr Kyle said, and could save thousands of lives a year.
The Telegraph has launched a campaign calling for a targeted national screening programme for prostate cancer, which focusses on men who are at the greatest risk.
This includes men over 50, black men, whose risk is twice that of white men, and those with a family history of prostate cancer.
Steve McQueen, Bob Willis and Chris Hoy are some of the high-profile British men to be recently diagnosed with the condition. Around 55,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer annually in England and around 33 men a day die from the condition.
Writing for The Telegraph alongside Stian Westlake, the executive chairman of the Economic and Social Research Council, Mr Kyle said: 'This funding will support work on a project linking health records to demographics, family history and behaviour to identify those at higher risk of this devastating illness, so that it can be treated early – potentially saving thousands of lives every year.'
The plan is to create flexible national screening programmes which can pick up more cases in individuals who may otherwise be missed and diagnosed only when the cancer was incurable.
Officials are hoping to replicate the success of BRCA1 genetic screening. Around one in 400 people has faulty BRCA genes, which give women a 60 per cent chance of developing breast cancer.
This received widespread attention and became known as the 'Angelina Jolie gene' after the Hollywood actress underwent a double mastectomy after finding out she was a carrier in 2013.
The NHS now offers genetic tests to high-risk groups, such as Jewish women, to catch as many cases early as possible.
Mr Kyle said: 'Just as BRCA gene screening, heroically brought to the fore by campaigners including Angelina Jolie, revolutionised how we understand and manage the risk of hereditary breast cancer, this next generation of data-driven screening could do the same for more cancers, including prostate cancer.'
Scientists running the scheme hope it can enable the NHS to offer more frequent cancer screening sessions or screening at a younger age to those at higher risk, while those at lower risk could be spared unnecessary tests.
People identified as higher risk could also be sent for cancer testing faster when they go to their GP with possible symptoms.
The wider Administrative Data Partnership will last until 2031 and try to repurpose data that already exists to make improvements to the judicial service, education, health and other public sectors.
Combining, standardising and interpreting different datasets simultaneously is a daunting challenge for scientists owing to decades of independent data collection and little crossover.
However, the Government believes that vast data reserves, combined with the power of AI computing, could transform healthcare.
The cancer screening project will build new models over the next five years to merge relevant data as well as creating algorithms which will process it and ensure the results are accurate and reliable.
Antonis Antoniou, the programme director and professor of cancer risk prediction at the University of Cambridge, said: 'The UK's strengths in population-scale data resources, combined with advanced analytical tools like AI, offer tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers.'
Dr David Crosby, the head of prevention and early detection research at Cancer Research UK, told The Telegraph: 'The single most important thing we can do to beat cancer is to find it earlier, when treatment is more likely to be successful.
'With half a million cancer cases per year expected in the UK by 2040, we need a major shift towards more accurate diagnosis and detection of early cancer.
'The Cancer Data Driven Detection programme will link health data sources together and build the powerful new tools doctors need to identify those at highest risk of cancer and prioritise resources towards them.
'Moving towards a preventative approach to healthcare will not be easy and will take time. Cancer Research UK's investment in the programme is an investment in the future of cancer care.'
Data is the key to changing lives for the better
By Peter Kyle and Stian Westlake
For much of our everyday lives, data is king – from digital maps getting us from A to B, to health apps keeping our fitness and sleep in check, to even streaming platforms suggesting the next drama we might want to get stuck into.
For this government, making good use of data is the difference between successful policies that are rooted in evidence, and those that rely on hope, luck or intuition, which no minister, legislator or council leader wants to rely on. Ultimately data is the bedrock of decision-making, ensuring policies, programmes and funding are doing what they are intended to do – changing lives for the better.
Linking data from across government to the national pupil database for example can help to really dig into the source of inequalities that trap too many Brits from childhood through to the labour market – helping us to take targeted action in boosting social mobility and shattering glass ceilings.
Or by better applying it in the justice system, we can understand patterns of reoffending, stopping career criminals from inflicting more misery on the law-abiding majority. And it can forecast the impact that this government extending the national living wage has on younger workers, so that millions more who put the hours in take home the pay they deserve.
What unites all of these examples is that they were all made possible by UKRI's administrative data research UK partnership.
It works to connect, and make sense of, the huge wealth of data that is generated by government services, bringing it to our world class researchers securely and with the public's privacy at heart since 2018. In short it has been demonstrating the role data can play in improving lives in as many ways as we can imagine and more.
But we know we can go further and too many social and economic researchers – many of the very best of whom are right here in the UK – simply can't access the data they need.
It is fragmented and siloed, held in different datasets by different public organisations. That means too many rely instead on insights from abroad, which while offering much, simply can't tell the full story of life in Britain in 2025.
Accessing the raw resource of all that data and translating it into a form that researchers can use is no easy task, and while we need to grow our data science expertise, we also need to build relationships and make the case to other organisations that secure data sharing has the power to change lives.
That is why UKRI is investing a further £168m to continue ADR UK's programme of work through to 2031.
This includes continuing our partnership with Cancer Research UK to develop AI-powered tools that can predict cancer risk based on health records, family history and behaviour.
Just as BRCA gene screening, heroically brought to the fore by campaigners including Angelina Jolie, revolutionised how we understand and manage the risk of hereditary breast cancer, this next generation of data-driven screening could do the same for more cancers, including prostate cancer.
This funding will support work with organisations and charities like Cancer Research UK for example, on a project linking health records to demographics, family history, and behaviour to identify those at higher risk of this devastating illness, so that it can be treated early – potentially saving thousands of lives every year.
The ADR will also offer learnings for and help us shape our new national data library, a central government resource designed to bring together existing research programmes and make it easier for policymakers and public bodies to access and use data securely to improve public services.
As the incredible opportunities and challenges of technology like AI advance at unprecedented speeds and as we grapple with the fate of our planet as our climate changes, using data to drive policy for the generations to come has never been more important.
This government is driven by a plan for change that will transform the lives of the British people, from growing our economy so that our payslips go further, to unlocking opportunity for everyone regardless of background, and building an NHS that is fit for the future and makes the most of the opportunities in new technology.
Data can play a huge part in getting that right and targeting government support where it is needed most.
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