Cancer survival 'to double in 10 years'

Fresh hope for patients as research advances

- MARTIN BAGOT

SURVIVAL rates for patients with advanced cancer could double within a decade thanks to new breakthroughs from cutting-edge research. 

More is now known about the body’s “cancer ecosystem” which enables the disease to thrive, said the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.

In one development, scientists hope to break the ability of cancer cells to instruct healthy cells to support tumours.

Interrupting these systems would help stop cancer spreading.

Other break throughs could also help destroy cancer cells and boost the body’s ability to fight the disease.

Professor Kevin Harrington of the ICR, a consultant at the Royal Marsden, said: “A lump of cancer in a patient is far more than simply a ball of cancer cells.