The burden and mechanisms of multi-organ morbidity in people with past cancer (360G-Wellcome-228289_Z_23_Z)

Improvements in treatments have led to an increase in the number of people surviving cancer. Cancer treatment places significant strain on physical and mental health of patients, which can impact well-being for many years after treatment completion. Recent studies show that as people survive for longer after their initial cancer diagnosis, non-cancer illnesses become more important as causes of ill health or premature death. In the UK, the number of people surviving cancer has doubled in the last 40 years, with more than half of the people diagnosed with cancer surviving at least 10 years after their diagnosis. Optimising the long-term health of cancer survivors is an important public health priority. The UK Biobank is a very large research resource with extensive linkages to clinical records and highly detailed characterisation of health across multiple organ systems. We aim to comprehensively characterise multi-organ health of UK Biobank participants with past cancer across the following themes: heart health, brain health, mental well-being, cardio- metabolomic profile. We will define the excess burden of disease across these areas in cancer survivors (compared to participants without cancer). Disease mechanisms will be explored using detailed medical scans and bloodwork using state-of-the-art statistical and machine learning methods.