UK Biobank: a globally important resource for cancer research

Abstract

UK Biobank is a large-scale prospective study with deep phenotyping and genomic data. Its open-access policy allows researchers worldwide, from academia or industry, to perform health research in the public interest. Between 2006 and 2010, the study recruited 502,000 adults aged 40–69 years from the general population of the United Kingdom. At enrolment, participants provided information on a wide range of factors, physical measurements were taken, and biological samples (blood, urine and saliva) were collected for long-term storage. Participants have now been followed up for over a decade with more than 52,000 incident cancer cases recorded. The study continues to be enhanced with repeat assessments, web-based questionnaires, multi-modal imaging, and conversion of the stored biological samples to genomic and other ‘–omic’ data. The study has already demonstrated its value in enabling research into the determinants of cancer, and future planned enhancements will make the resource even more valuable to cancer researchers. Over 26,000 researchers worldwide are currently using the data, performing a wide range of cancer research. UK Biobank is uniquely placed to transform our understanding of the causes of cancer development and progression, and drive improvements in cancer treatment and prevention over the coming decades.

Transferability of European-derived cardiometabolic polygenic risk scores in the South Asians and their interplay with family history

“…It has been shown that the UKB is a valuable resource for evaluating the utility of PRS, as it provides both phenotypic and genotypic data (28). While the majority of UKB participants have EUR ancestry, the dataset involves more than 20,000 participants of self-reported non-EUR.…”

Association of cancer history with structural brain aging markers of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias risk

“…The lack of information on cancer treatment is a significant limitation of this study, especially given the potential effect of chemotherapy and hormone therapy on brain structures 13,14,49 . While UK Biobank is linked to the UK national cancer registries, which are regarded as the gold standard for identifying cancer outcomes in the United Kingdom, the completeness of data might experience a time lag due to the complicated curation process from multiple sources 50 . UK Biobank has future plans to expand its linkage, aiming to incorporate information on cancer treatment, which can serve as a step toward addressing our current limitation.…”

Overcoming Barriers to Discovery and Implementation of Equitable Pharmacogenomic Testing in Oncology

“…For example, the UK Biobank, with information on 500,000 individuals, includes more than 52,000 incident cancer cases in the cohort. [45][46][47] In the United States, analysis of data representing 203,813 participants enrolled in the All of Us research program for whom EHR data were available identified 23,520 cancer cases. 48,49 These programs combine all the needed elements for discovery; however, they are typically composed of mostly healthy volunteers and it is unclear, despite the relatively large cohort size, if the number of individuals comprising ancestral subgroups with a relevant disease and drug exposure would be sufficient to identify novel PGx associations.…”