Cth
04-06-2005, 08:25 AM
http://www.rednova.com/news/health/141544/mankind_will_beat_cancer_by_2015_says_who_scientis t/index.html
Mankind Will Beat Cancer By 2015, Says WHO Scientist
A GOLDEN age of cancer treatment which should finally overcome the killer disease is just a decade away, according to leading experts in the field.
Scientists believe current research will lead to new drugs that will turn cancer from a fatal condition into one which people can live with for most of their lives.
Professor Karol Sikora, a special advisor to the World Health Organisation, said: "At the moment, most people will die from it once the disease spreads. That will stop in about 2015. [Cancers] will become controllable illnesses - you will still have cancer, but you'll live with it for a long time, rather like diabetes."
The disease will still need constant treatment, but new treatments will give sufferers a much better quality of life - similar to the way diabetics live now - and avoid the need for harsh alternatives such as chemotherapy.
Prof Sikora, who is an internationally respected cancer doctor based in London's Harley Street, is among several experts taking part in a public meeting tomorrow as part of Edinburgh International Science Festival at the Royal College of Physicians.
He said: "The golden age of drug discovery is not far away with targeted treatments to suit an individual patient's needs and tailored therapies to ensure cancers are controlled and pain-free - long term control of cancer within ten years for the majority of cancers.
"New treatments will stop the cancers growing and they will essentially grow dormant.
"I am confident that living with cancer will be more dignified in the future. It will be much better than being on chemotherapy, which is quite unpleasant."
In addition to new drugs, genetic therapy and lifestyle changes would be used to minimise the effect of cancer, which is caused when damaged cells - by a variety of causes including smoking and sunlight - stop dying off naturally and reproduce uncontrollably.
However, Prof Sikora said such treatments were likely to be very expensive - as much as GBP 100,000 a year to treat one patient. "That's worrying for health budgets all over the world," he said.
He added that cancer vaccines were another area of development which could result in far cheaper forms of treatment and prevention.
However, Prof Sikora said it would take time for scientists to gradually develop effective treatments for each of the roughly 200 forms of cancer.
Last month, scientists at the Marie Curie Research Institute in Oxford - funded by the St Andrews-based charity the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) - announced they had managed to put skin cancer cells into a "coma", stopping them from multiplying and developing into life-threatening tumours.
This is believed to be the first time anyone in the world has managed to switch off the basic mechanism of cancer, which causes the infected cells to grow uncontrollably into tumours.
Derek Napier, chief executive of AICR, which is co-hosting tomorrow's public meeting with Edinburgh Drug Absorption Foundation, said this was a potential step towards the "holy grail" of a general cure for cancer which would work for all forms of the disease, rather than just one type.
The next stage would be to persuade the cancerous cells to die off by restarting the natural process of "cell suicide".
Mankind Will Beat Cancer By 2015, Says WHO Scientist
A GOLDEN age of cancer treatment which should finally overcome the killer disease is just a decade away, according to leading experts in the field.
Scientists believe current research will lead to new drugs that will turn cancer from a fatal condition into one which people can live with for most of their lives.
Professor Karol Sikora, a special advisor to the World Health Organisation, said: "At the moment, most people will die from it once the disease spreads. That will stop in about 2015. [Cancers] will become controllable illnesses - you will still have cancer, but you'll live with it for a long time, rather like diabetes."
The disease will still need constant treatment, but new treatments will give sufferers a much better quality of life - similar to the way diabetics live now - and avoid the need for harsh alternatives such as chemotherapy.
Prof Sikora, who is an internationally respected cancer doctor based in London's Harley Street, is among several experts taking part in a public meeting tomorrow as part of Edinburgh International Science Festival at the Royal College of Physicians.
He said: "The golden age of drug discovery is not far away with targeted treatments to suit an individual patient's needs and tailored therapies to ensure cancers are controlled and pain-free - long term control of cancer within ten years for the majority of cancers.
"New treatments will stop the cancers growing and they will essentially grow dormant.
"I am confident that living with cancer will be more dignified in the future. It will be much better than being on chemotherapy, which is quite unpleasant."
In addition to new drugs, genetic therapy and lifestyle changes would be used to minimise the effect of cancer, which is caused when damaged cells - by a variety of causes including smoking and sunlight - stop dying off naturally and reproduce uncontrollably.
However, Prof Sikora said such treatments were likely to be very expensive - as much as GBP 100,000 a year to treat one patient. "That's worrying for health budgets all over the world," he said.
He added that cancer vaccines were another area of development which could result in far cheaper forms of treatment and prevention.
However, Prof Sikora said it would take time for scientists to gradually develop effective treatments for each of the roughly 200 forms of cancer.
Last month, scientists at the Marie Curie Research Institute in Oxford - funded by the St Andrews-based charity the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) - announced they had managed to put skin cancer cells into a "coma", stopping them from multiplying and developing into life-threatening tumours.
This is believed to be the first time anyone in the world has managed to switch off the basic mechanism of cancer, which causes the infected cells to grow uncontrollably into tumours.
Derek Napier, chief executive of AICR, which is co-hosting tomorrow's public meeting with Edinburgh Drug Absorption Foundation, said this was a potential step towards the "holy grail" of a general cure for cancer which would work for all forms of the disease, rather than just one type.
The next stage would be to persuade the cancerous cells to die off by restarting the natural process of "cell suicide".