The UKCCS was set up in the early 1990s to investigate a wide range of possible causes of childhood cancer. For organisational purpopses, ten UKCCS administrative areas were defined - Scotland comprising one and England and Wales being divided into a further nine. Each administrative area - shown on the map - was the responsibility of a single regional centre. Until 2004, the overall conduct of the study was overseen by a scientific management committee chaired by Sir Richard Doll. For facts about the current committee structure and organisation, click here.

During the study, information about children with and without cancer was obtained from a wide variety of sources including interviews with their parents, medical records and radiation measurements in their homes. For more information about the data collected, click here.

UKCCS data have been used to look at a large number of potential risk factors including power-frequency magnetic fields, neonatal viatmin K and common childhood infection. For more facts about the specific areas that we have investigated and the reports produced, click here.

The scientific rationale behind the study and full details of the methods employed have been published in various reports. For more details, click here.