The information on this page is intended as a brief overview of the cancer information nurse service. For more detailed information on the support offered to patients by Cancer Research UK, please see our information and support for patients page.

If you are affected by, or concerned about, cancer, please refer to our patient information site, CancerHelp UK.

If you have further questions or need information not included on CancerHelp UK , we have a team of specialist cancer nurses who can answer your questions.

Our nurses can be contacted by phone by calling their freephone number on 0808 800 4040. To talk to them in your preferred language ask for our interpreting service.

Textphone users (for the deaf or hard of hearing) can contact 020 7061 8484.

You can also contact the nurses using the contact form on our patient information website, CancerHelp UK.

The information provided by the Cancer Information Nurses is not a substitute for professional care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health problem you should consult your doctor. The Cancer Information Nurses provide an information service only and are unable to access emergency care or talk to health professionals directly on any enquirer's behalf.

Accreditation and confidentiality

The cancer information nurse team is a member of the Telephone Helpline Association and has achieved their quality standard.

Our team of nurses aim to answer all email enquiries in five working days. However, their response time may be longer than this during particularly busy periods.

The service they provide is confidential.

Only the Cancer Information Nurses use any personal information you provide and only for the purposes of dealing with your enquiry/enquiries.

They will not pass on your details to anyone else without your express permission, except in exceptional circumstances to comply with the nurses' code of professional conduct or the law.

Examples of this might include children contacting the service reporting abuse, anyone reporting serious self harm, anyone expressing the intention of harming someone else, or if a terrorist threat is reported. Your personal information and details of the enquiries received are stored on a secure database.

If for any reason you wish to have your personal details removed from their records, please contact the Cancer Information Nurses.

Information for students

As a charity, we do not have the resources available to us to answer individual requests from students. Our website is our most comprehensive resource, and is constantly updated. Visit our News and Resources site for information about cancer and our research.