Cancer could one day become a manageable disease like diabetes and high blood pressure, says doctor

Dr David Graham said instead of curing conditions like diabetes, "we find a way for people to live with them'

CANCER could one day be a manageable disease like diabetes or high blood pressure, experts hope.

Rather than focusing on a cure, scientists should find ways for people to live with the disease, one expert said today.



Cancer could one day become a manageable disease, like diabetes and high blood pressure, experts hope
If the “fantastic goal” is reached, it could mean patients keep their condition under control with medication.

Dr David Graham, an expert at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), said: “We don’t cure high blood pressure, we don’t cure diabetes.

“We find a way for people to live with them.”

He said improvements in diagnosis and treatment are being made all the time.

It means four in five cancer patients in the UK could expect to live for at least 10 years after being told they have cancer, within the next decade.

“I think we are already seeing fantastic changes in survival rates already,” he said.

“We’ve seen that even in the last decade.

“There are a number of cancers already that have become chronic, manageable diseases.”

One example is that some women with breast cancer are now able to live long lives taking hormonal pills “with minimal side-effects and problems”.



Dr David Graham said we don’t cure diabetes or high blood pressure, but “find a way for people to live with them’
Eluned Hughes, at Breast Cancer Now, said the charity hopes that by 2050 “everyone who develops breast cancer will live”.

“Thanks to research, more people are surviving breast cancer than ever before,” she said.

But, she added too many people are still dying – around 11,500 women and 80 men each year.

“Once breast cancer spreads to another part of the body, it sadly becomes incurable,” she added.

WHAT IS IMMUNOTHERAPY?

The pioneering new treatment is arguably the most promising breakthroughs in cancer therapies since the development of chemotherapies in the 1940s.

The treatment “wakes up” a patient’s own immune system, to help it fight cancer.

This can be done in several ways.

One form of immunotherapy stimulates the body’s own immune system to work harder, to attack cancer cells.

While, another route, gives the immune system a manmade boost from specific proteins, to spark it into action.

Immunotherapy helps the body fight the disease from within.

Scientists believe the benefits go further still.

They believe by engaging the immune system, it can be possible to make the body “remember” the cancer, preventing it returning.

“If we are to finally stop people dying, we must answer the critical question of how to stop the disease spreading.”

Currently, half of people diagnosed with cancer live for a decade, according to Cancer Research UK.

Dr Richard Schilsky, chief medical officer at ASCO said immunotherapy treatments, hailed by many as the greatest breakthrough in cancer treatment since chemo in the 1940s, will enable long-term management of the disease.

“Immune therapies are really going to substantially improve the long-term disease control for some patients,” he said.

“The immune therapies have a very long-lasting effect.



Part of the battle in increasing cancer survival rates is combating unhealthy lifestyles, experts say – as obesity is now the biggest risk factor for cancer
“We can be extremely hopeful that we’ve come very far and the pace of progress is accelerating.”

Part of the battle against cancer lies in tackling smoking and obesity rates, both of which impact on the risk of cancer, Dr Graham added.

Being obese is now considered to be a bigger risk factor for cancer than smoking, he noted.

“It’s a fight, it’s a worthy fight to have,” Dr Graham added.

Sarah Toule, head if health information at the World Cancer Research Fund echoed Dr Graham’s hopes for ever improving survival rates.

She said tackling lifestyle factors is vital in preventing the disease in the first place.

“The more steps that are taken to help reduce obesity, improve diets and get people more active in the UK, the more we can expect cancer cases to be prevented in the first place and for cancer survival rates to improve,” she said.

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