FACTBOX-The Royal Marsden Hospital

LONDON (Reuters) - Patients were evacuated on Wednesday when fire broke out at the Royal Marsden Hospital on the Fulham Road in London.

Here are five facts about the hospital.

-- The Royal Marsden is the world's oldest hospital dedicated to cancer treatment, research and education, having been founded in 1851. It is the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe treating over 40,000 patients every year.

-- Together with its academic partner The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), The Royal Marsden has discovered or developed more new anti-cancer drugs than the National Cancer Institute in the USA.

-- The Royal Marsden and the ICR form the UK's only designated Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer -- awarded in December 2006 by The National Institute for Health Research.

-- The Trust was part of the first wave of hospitals to be awarded NHS Foundation Trust status in April 2004. Becoming a Foundation Trust has allowed it to invest in new services and facilities.

-- It operates on two sites, in the Fulham Road in southwest London and in Belmont, near Sutton, Surrey.