The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a public research institute and a constituent college of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It 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. The ICR occupies sites in Chelsea, Central London and Sutton, southwest London, and had a total income of £96.4 million in 2012/13, of which £52.3 million was from peer-reviewed research grant awards.