Research Governance

All research associated with CancerPath adheres to the following ethical principles:

• Informed consent: Users are informed about how their anonymised, aggregated engagement data may be used for research and evaluation purposes.
• Anonymisation: All analytics data is anonymised and aggregated. No individual user can be identified from research outputs.
• Transparency: Research findings, methodologies and limitations are reported openly and honestly.
• Beneficence: Research is conducted to improve cancer outcomes and reduce health inequalities, not for commercial exploitation of user data.

CancerPath research activities are subject to appropriate ethical review and oversight:

• University ethics committee approval is sought for research studies conducted in collaboration with academic partners.
• NHS Research Ethics Committee (REC) approval is obtained where research involves NHS patients, staff or data.
• Research collaborations are governed by formal agreements specifying data handling, intellectual property and publication rights.
• All research outputs are subject to peer review before publication.

CancerPath is committed to meaningful public and patient involvement (PPI) in research and platform development. We engage with community members, cancer survivors and patient advocates to ensure the platform is shaped by the people it serves.

If you are interested in contributing to CancerPath's research or PPI activities, please contact us at cancerpath@outlook.com.

Research conducted using CancerPath data uses only anonymised, aggregated engagement metrics. This includes:

• Page views and pathway engagement (aggregated).
• Screening information access (aggregated).
• Geographic engagement at regional level (no individual locations).
• Device and browser types (aggregated).

No symptom responses, personal health data, or personally identifiable information is used for research purposes.