'We are at the cusp of a golden era of cancer treatment'

Imagine getting a cancer diagnosis, and instead of having to break the devastating news to your family, enduring harrowing treatments and frantically googling survival rates, it felt more like being told you had the flu.

- KATE WILLS

That could be a reality in the not-too-distant future, thanks to the “treatment revolution” already underway, according to Sir Stephen Powis, the outgoing medical director of NHS England.

Although one in two people will get cancer in their lifetime, and there are 385,000 cancer diagnoses each year in the UK, Powis believes that “we are at the cusp of a golden era in terms of the way we treat a range of cancers... for many cancers now, people should be confident that it’s not a death sentence.”

Hayley Brown, science engagement manager at Cancer Research UK, agrees. “In the 1970s, only one in four people survived cancer for 10 years or more, now it’s two in four,” she says. “More and more people are surviving with fewer side effects and we can see the day coming closer when we can all live free from the fear of cancer.” Brown says that one of the biggest breakthroughs has been the development of cancer vaccines, which are set be rolled out to 10,000 patients on the NHS over the next five years.

“Doctors and scientists have been working on cancer vaccines for decades, but they've now reached a point where they're seeing real promise in boosting survival rates for skin, bowel, lung, brain and pancreatic cancers,” says Brown. “The vaccines currently being trialled have been developed using the same technology as the Covid vaccine.”

Some, such as LungVax, are preventative and are given to patients identified as being at high-risk of developing the disease. Others, such as a melanoma vaccine, are given to patients who have already been diagnosed with cancer to prevent its recurrence.

Science fiction is now a reality