How to do cancer research in high school
- Stephen Turban
- Jul 31
- 7 min read
Cancer research sounds like something that only happens in a university lab with years of training behind it. In reality, high schoolers do real, meaningful cancer research every year, with the right mentorship and a realistic plan. This guide walks through the whole process simply: starting out, finding a topic, actually doing the work, and what comes after.
Key takeaways
Cancer research covers far more than lab work. It includes molecular biology, genomics, epidemiology, bioinformatics and AI, and health policy, so you do not need access to a wet lab to do real research.
A good topic is narrow enough to actually answer, not just a broad area of interest. Narrowing usually happens through reading, not guessing.
Most high schoolers conduct cancer research through one of three paths: a mentored independent research program, a lab-based summer program, or a self-directed literature-based project.
What happens after your research matters as much as the research itself. Presenting at a science fair, submitting to a journal, or including it directly in a college application are all real, achievable next steps.
Step 1: understand what "cancer research" actually covers
Before picking a direction, it helps to know the field is broader than most students assume. Cancer research includes molecular and cellular biology, studying how mutations in genes like BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53 drive uncontrolled cell growth. It includes genomics and bioinformatics, using publicly available datasets to find patterns across tumor samples. It includes epidemiology, studying who gets which cancers and why, often using existing public health data rather than a lab at all. And it increasingly includes work at the intersection of AI and healthcare, studying how machine learning models perform in cancer diagnosis and where they show bias across different patient populations.
This range matters because it means a lack of lab access is not actually a barrier. A genomics, epidemiology, or AI-focused cancer research project can be done with a laptop, publicly available data, and a computer science or statistics background, no pipette required.
Step 2: find a topic you can actually research
The biggest mistake at this stage is picking a topic that is really just an area of interest rather than an answerable question. "Cancer and genetics" is an area. "Which specific TP53 mutations are most associated with resistance to a given chemotherapy drug" is a question you can actually investigate.
Getting from one to the other takes reading, not guessing. Skim recent review articles and a handful of primary research papers in the area that interests you, using a tool like PubMed, and pay attention to where researchers say more work is still needed, that is often where a genuinely open, appropriately sized question is hiding. Our list of 30+ cancer research topics for high school students is a useful starting point if you want to see the range of directions other students have taken, from genomic sequencing to AI bias in diagnosis.
Step 3: decide how you'll actually conduct the research
There are three realistic paths, and they suit different situations.
Path 1 - A mentored independent research program pairs you with a researcher, often a PhD student or postdoc, who helps you scope a question, choose a method, and work through the research over several months. This path works well if you want to explore your own specific question rather than join someone else's existing project, and it does not require you to relocate or have prior lab experience. The Lumiere Research Scholar Program works this way, pairing students with a PhD mentor to design and complete an original research project, including in oncology-adjacent fields like biology, data science, and public health, over roughly 12 weeks.
Path 2 - A lab-based summer program places you inside an existing university or cancer center lab, working on a piece of an ongoing project alongside faculty and graduate students. This path gives you hands-on exposure to real lab techniques and equipment you would not otherwise have access to, though you typically have less say over the specific research question, since you are contributing to work the lab already has underway. Our roundups of oncology summer programs, cancer research opportunities, and our review of MD Anderson's CATALYST program cover specific options in this category.
Path 3 - A self-directed literature or data-based project is the most accessible option if you cannot access a formal program at all. Using public datasets, like those available through the National Cancer Institute's SEER program, or conducting a structured literature review comparing findings across existing studies, is a legitimate form of research that does not require lab access or an institutional affiliation, though it benefits enormously from having even informal mentor feedback along the way.
Step 4: actually conducting the research
Once you have a topic and a path, the process itself follows a similar shape regardless of which option you chose. Start with a deeper literature review specifically focused on your narrowed question, not just the general topic, to understand what is already known and where your question fits. Then design your actual method: this might mean identifying which public dataset you will analyze and which statistical tests you will run, or which set of papers you will systematically compare and on what criteria, or, in a lab setting, which specific experiments your mentor has planned for you to run.
From there, the work is mostly iterative: collect or gather your data, analyze it, and revisit your original question as real findings come in, since research questions often need to narrow or shift once you see what the evidence actually shows. Regular check-ins with a mentor at this stage are where most of the actual learning happens, since a mentor can catch a flawed assumption or a better analytical approach long before it costs you weeks of wasted work. Finally, write up your findings clearly: what you asked, how you investigated it, what you found, and what it means, which is a skill in itself separate from the research.
Step 5: what to do after finishing your research
Finishing the research is not the end of the process. A few concrete next steps are worth considering, and they are not mutually exclusive. You can explore all 3 of the options below in parallel!
Option 1 - Presenting at a science fair is one of the most established paths, particularly through Regeneron ISEF, the largest international pre-college science competition, which includes dedicated categories for biomedical and health sciences research. Qualifying typically requires working through a chain of local, regional, and sometimes state-level affiliated fairs first.
Option 2 - Submitting to a student research journal is another concrete option if your project produced a genuine written paper. Our complete guide to publishing your research in high school and our list of journals that publish high school research both cover what that submission process actually looks like.
Option 3 - Including it directly in your college application is worth doing deliberately rather than as an afterthought. Our analysis of whether research in high school actually helps with college admissions found that students who could clearly explain why they pursued their research, what they learned, and how it shaped them got far more value from it than students who simply listed "did research" as an activity. Attaching the paper itself as a supplemental document, where an application allows it, gives admissions readers something concrete to actually evaluate.
Frequently asked questions
Can a high schooler really do cancer research without lab access?
Yes. Genomics, bioinformatics, epidemiology, and AI-in-healthcare research can all be done using publicly available datasets and a laptop, without needing access to a wet lab or specialized equipment.
What is the easiest way to start cancer research as a beginner?
Start by reading recent review articles in an area of cancer biology that interests you, using a tool like PubMed, and pay attention to where researchers note that more work is needed. That gap is often a realistic starting point for your own question.
Do I need a mentor to do cancer research in high school?
It is not strictly required, but it makes a significant difference. A mentor helps you scope a question to something genuinely answerable in the time you have, and catches methodological problems early enough to fix them, which is especially valuable in a technical field like cancer biology.
What happens to my research after I finish it?
Common next steps include presenting at a science fair like ISEF, submitting your paper to a student research journal, or including the paper directly as a supplemental attachment in your college application.
Is cancer research only useful if I want to become an oncologist?
No. The underlying skills, framing a research question, evaluating evidence, and communicating findings, transfer to any STEM or health-related field, even if you ultimately pursue a different specialty or career entirely.
Resources
External resources
PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's database of biomedical literature, useful for a topic-specific literature review.
NCI SEER Training Modules, National Cancer Institute resources on cancer biology and data.
NCI Understanding Cancer, the National Cancer Institute's public education resources on cancer biology and research.
More cancer research content from the Lumiere blog
More on research process from the Lumiere blog
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a graduate of Harvard College, where he earned an A.B. in Statistics. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.