An Overview of Cancer Research Program in the UK

The cancer research program was founded on the 4th of February in 2002, however scientists had started to research it back in 1902. Since then they have done tons of testing and research and are getting closer to their goal – to rid the world of this terrible illness. In 1923 they had started to experiment using radiation, however in the 1930’s is when radiotherapy was formed and developed. Today radiotherapy cures many forms of cancer, even more than cancer drugs cure. 1948 was when they had introduced the first ever chemotherapy drug, this was after World War 1 and scientists discovered new chemicals based on mustard gas. That has led to the three important chemo drugs that are still used today. They have also found out many of the causes of cancer along the way. We will research aims, stakeholders, structure of the organization in UK in "Overview Cancer Research Essay" paper.

Aims and Objectives

Cancer research has a few objectives but only one aim, and that is to defeat cancer all together, save millions of lives and help families. As for now they have four main objectives. They are to help prevent cancer before it occurs; diagnose it earlier; develop new treatments; and to make current treatments more affective. However, they are still campaigning to make people more aware of the factors that cause cancer and the signs of when you have developed the illness. By doing this scientists and doctors’ hope they can make people realise how bad some of these things are and the number of people developing cancer will drop as they have hopefully stopped some of their habits. Many people have already became aware and so the numbers have slightly dropped already, although everyone would like there to be even less people that has to go through this traumatic experience. As of right now they are focusing on finding medicine for some of the most common cancers or most vigorous working one, they are also looking at the biology of these cancers to find out more of the information.

Ownership and Liability

Cancer research is a charity so it is a non-profit organisation, this means that they get all of their funding from the support of the community. This makes it so they are affected by stakeholders as they could easily lose a lot of money if they start doing things that any of the stakeholders do not like. This company is owned by the government but is not funded by them, they rely solely on the public. If something within fails the people who invested will only lose the amount of money that they have put in and nothing more, however the government and more important scientists could lose a bit more than what they just put in. As Cancer Research UK is a non-profit organisation there isn’t a clear person who runs this business but there are different ranks that have more power and who has a say in what is going on and their next steps.

Stakeholders

Cancer Research UK’s main stakeholders include the community, the supporters/donators and the suppliers. Just like any other business, profit or non-profit, all stakeholders hold some sort of influence in the decisions that are made for the organisation. The people who donate and raise money for this charity influence Cancer research quite a bit as it is their money that the scientists are using to try and find the cure to all the types of cancer. Without this money there would not be any funding towards the charity and its aims. Therefore in order to keep being able to do their jobs they need to satisfy the needs and wants of the donators in case they decide to stop raising money for the charity as they don’t agree with the methods to what they are doing or how they are going about it. This could lead to a substantial loss of funds and money to support their research, not giving them enough to carry on with all that they are doing, meaning that they would have to make some cuts and changes to their plans. The community helps promote cancer research whether it be through social media or just talking to friends. Depending on the charity’s strategy depends on the communities views, being either positive or negative, they will then share these views with all people they know with some sharing the opinions. If these opinions are negative they are more likely to spread and many more people would hear about it and might be more hesitant to put forward a donation. If the scientists are using the chemicals and other products in a way that the suppliers might seem unsatisfactory then they could stop supplying any of the things needed, leaving the charity low on supplies and less likely to find a medication that will help rid of the illness.

Organisational Structure

Cancer research UK’s organisational structure is grouped up into sections of research groups, finance, laboratory officers and advisors as well as a few more. However, for the different cities Cancer Research are located in, there are slightly different organisational structures for each one. Although this might seem messy they each have a section of people that communicate with each other to update and notify each different part of the organisation. They will do this as a monthly check up or when they have found something they think is of importance and will bring them closer to finding a cure, whether for one specific cancer or for many different types.