The safety and protection of the UK population’s personal information or data is enshrined in UK law. As such, the Cancer Screening and Prevention Research Group (CSPRG) at Imperial College London is governed by all relevant UK legislation on keeping personal data safe. The CSPRG also adheres to all Imperial policies and best practice on information security and data protection, and implements additional group policies for the safe use and storage of all patient and public health data gathered for our cancer research studies.
Privacy and data protection information about the GEM study
The Cancer Screening and Prevention Research Group (CSPRG) at Imperial College London processes special category personal data for the GEM study. We are using this special category health data to investigate a potential new set of biomarkers for the early detection of stomach cancer. The special category personal data used in this study is crucial to the success of this project, and the public good generally.
What type of information will we hold for the purposes of the GEM study?
The CSPRG will hold the following personal information for the GEM study:
- Patient data.
- Medical information – results of endoscopy tests, lab reports, medical history, other current medical conditions, and regular medications.
- Laboratory data – levels of the different biomarkers.
The data we hold is pseudonymised. This means that each person is given a unique study number rather than us holding the data under their name. The file linking the study numbers to the patients’ names and other identifiable details is held on a secure computer at the participating hospital site.
We require this information to be able to answer our research questions and to guarantee the quality of our results. It will not be possible to identify individuals from the published results of this study.
What approvals has this study received?
The organisation responsible for this study, the study sponsor, is Imperial College London. The study has been reviewed and given a favourable opinion by an NHS Research Ethics Committee.
All research in the NHS is overseen by the Health Research Authority (HRA). It is also reviewed by an independent group, the NHS Research Ethics Committee. Their role is to ensure the protection of patient safety, rights, well-being and dignity.
How long will we hold the data?
We hope to complete recruitment and collection of samples by the end of 2025.
Imperial College London, the organisation responsible for this study, requires us to hold research data from all clinical studies for 10 years after the study end date. We therefore expect to hold this data until the end of 2035.