Breakthrough in cancer drugs to target treatment resistance

Scientists have announced that the world’s first drugs designed to combat cancer cells to stop them from becoming resistant to treatment could be available to the public within the next ten years.

The Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) has announced a £75 million investment to develop the drugs.

The ICR’s chief executive Professor Paul Workman said cancer’s ability to adapt and become resistant to drugs is the biggest challenge in the treatment, and said the new treatment could make cancer a ‘manageable’ disease going forward and ‘more often curable’.

According to research, current treatment such as chemotherapy can fail because the most lethal cancer cells survive and adapt, causing patients to relapse.

Professor Workman said “Cancer’s ability to adapt, evolve and become drug resistant was the cause of the vast majority of deaths from the disease and the biggest challenge we face in overcoming it.”

He went on to say that the institute was “changing the entire way we think about cancer” and starting to focus on anticipating the was in which cancer cells evolve in order to stop them from becoming resistant to treatment.

He added “We firmly believe that, with further research, we can find ways to make cancer a manageable disease in the long term and one that is more often curable, so patients can live longer and with a better quality of life.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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