The CRCL is a research structure created in 2011 and affiliated with the University Claude Bernard Lyon1, the national health and research bodies (Inserm and CNRS), the anticancer Léon Bérard center (CLB) and with the Lyon Civic Hospital (HCL) as clinical partner. The CRCL comprises 25 research teams organized into 2 scientific departments, totaling over 600 people. Its activities are entirely dedicated to fundamental and applied research in cancer.

Over the past few years, the CRCL has been a foundation stone for the development of cancer research in Lyon, through the consecutive creation, in the framework of highly competitive national calls, of the “Laboratoire d’Excellence” DevWeCan (Investissement d’Avenir call for offers), focused on fundamental research at the interface between development and cancer, and of the LYriCAN (Integrated Cancer Research Site of Lyon), which aims  at strengthening the links between clinical, translational and fundamental research. The support for both of these projects was renewed in 2018, and more recently the CRCL successfully applied for a national call “Programme Institut Convergence” leading to the initiation if the multidisciplinary “PLASCAN” Institute.