Better screening programmes and breakthrough develop-ments in detection methods will see death rates...
Better screening programmes and breakthrough develop-ments in detection methods will see death rates fall for breast, cervical, bowel and prostate cancers in under 10 years, according to Cancer Research UK.
The charity's new chief executive, Professor Alex Markham, said new pro-grammes being launched in the UK would bring the four deadly cancers under control within two generations.
"This is an exciting time to be a cancer researcher," he said. "We are developing new therapies which will revolu-tionise the way patients are treated in the future, new screening methods to detect early stage disease and investing more time and energy into helping prevent the disease occurring in the first place."
Markham predicts an extra 600 lives will be saved each year from breast cancer, as a result of the current screening pro-gramme being extended to women up to the age of 70. New screening techniques, such as liquid-based cytology, will also prevent more women from developing cervical cancer.
A national screening prog-ramme, likely to be introduced within the next five years, is expected to prevent some 5,000 cases of bowel cancer each year in the UK.
Further research into prostate cancer detection and treat-ment, including a new trial looking into the benefits of screening, is predicted to provide vital data. This will allow a detailed investigation of the impact of early diagnosis and treatment for the disease.
"There are few international issues in healthcare as contro-versial as prostate cancer screening," said Markham. "But the high quality research needed to answer the debate has been lacking until now. The new trial will finally reveal whether screening the pop-ulation for prostate cancer can save lives and if the benefits of screening outweigh the costs."
