Cancer Research UK pledges £300 million to boost fight against cancer
This article was originally published in Scrip
Cancer Research UKhas announced it will invest around £300 million a year as part of a five-year plan to reduce cancer deaths in the UK.
The research will form the foundations of longer-term goals up to 2020, with a key focus on early detection, screening, R&D, public information and working influence in public policy.
Cancers which remain difficult to treat will specifically be targeted, including oesophageal, pancreatic and lung cancers, which remain in the top 10 cancers for mortality in the UK but where essentially no progress has been made in treating them.
Whilst breast cancer now has a 20-year survival rate of nearly 70% and testicular cancer, melanoma and Hodgkin's disease a 10-year survival rate of over 80%, only 5% of those with pancreatic, oesophageal or lung cancer will survive for this long. Around 7,600 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year with 7,300 deaths annually, whilst lung cancer has 38,000 diagnoses and 35,000 deaths. Oesophageal cancer has similarly high mortality figures – 7,800 diagnoses with 7,400 deaths.
The lack of progress is attributed to late diagnosis – less than 10-20% of patients presenting have cancers which are operable – lack of effective treatments due to difficulty accessing the cancers, such as retrieving tumour tissue for research, and a defeatist attitude." There's a degree of nihilism, a degree of defeatism… researchers have said we're not sure we're going to make progress in these areas, we're not sure whether there's going to be improvements in survival," Cancer Research UK's chief executive Harpal Kumar said.
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To stimulate research in these areas, the plan will focus on further exploration of imaging and biomarker developments, as well as radiotherapy and surgery, which accounts for 50% of all cancers cured. Promotion of early diagnosis will also be tackled, largely through removing barriers for GP visits and promoting awareness of symptoms, which was described as "appallingly poor" in the UK.
The charity will establish up to 20 UK centres of excellence across the UK, most to be announced or launched next year, to complement the five core institutes it has already established to undertake the research. "The purpose of these centres will be to more directly link research activities with patient care in those areas," said Mr Kumar, adding they would be "world class" in specific areas, for example certain tumours or treatment types, and would help train the next generation of clinical and non-clinical scientists. Funding streams have been set aside for specific research centres across the UK, and successful applications from research communities will also be funded, he added.
The charity added that research would continue across all cancers, such as breast cancer, as well as those with less progression. "We don't see ourselves as coming away from areas in which we've had such strident success over the last 20 years," said Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, adding instead there would be an additional emphasis on areas will large scope for improvement.