The Institute of Cancer Research the ICR is a cancer research institute located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. The ICR was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Marsden Hospital and joined the University of London in 2003. It has been responsible for a number of breakthrough discoveries, including that the basic cause of cancer is damage to DNA.
Together with the Royal Marsden Hospital, the ICR forms the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe and is ranked first amongst all British higher education institutions in the Times Higher Education 2008 Research Assessment Exercise Table of Excellence. In addition to its research activities the ICR provides both taught postgraduate degree programmes and research degrees and currently has around 340 students. The ICR occupies two sites, one in Chelsea in Central London and one in Sutton in southwest London. It had a total income of £83.9 million in 2009/10, of which £49.8 million was from research grants and contracts.The ICR receives its external grant funding from the government body the Higher Education Funding Council for England, from government research council bodies and from charities including the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. It also receives voluntary income from legacies and from public and corporate donations. It runs the Everyman Campaign fundraising appeal, which raises awareness of male cancers and funds research into testicular and prostate cancer at the Everyman Centre, which is based at the ICR.