Increasingly, the ability to both share and deploy data is enhancing our understanding of cancer and providing the critical evidence base to inform earlier diagnosis, achieve more effective treatments and ensure enhanced quality-of-life. A more equitable collaborative culture, where data are shared and cross-disciplinarity is encouraged, provides the optimal environment to maximise the impact that a data-driven approach can achieve. The ability to capture intelligence on cancer inequalities is also critical to improving patient outcomes. Data are also increasingly deployed to provide the evidence to inform changes in cancer policy, leading to better outcomes for cancer patients. A series of high impact studies will be presented, highlighting how data has transformed cancer research and its translation into better cancer care.