A report from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) has achieved extensive coverage this week. It concerns a YouGov poll which records a strong public focus on a ‘cure for cancer.’
The ICR believes this focus on curing cancer masks dramatic progress in extending the lives of patients with advanced cancer and turning it into a manageable disease long term. They continue that focusing exclusively on curing cancer risks overlooking the huge progress that has been made in allowing people with advanced disease to live much longer with a high quality of life.
The ICR says that the average length of survival for cancer has doubled over a decade. Whilst this is true for many types of cancer, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for those diagnosed with a brain tumour. Less than 20% of brain tumour patients survive beyond five years of their diagnosis and this figure has remained stubbornly low for years.
Whilst we agree with the ICR that “curing cancer will always be the ultimate goal for patients and researchers” and applaud the news that treatments can offer the hope of controlling even advanced disease in the long term, our focus will remain on the discovery science that will ultimately deliver our mission – a cure for brain tumours.
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