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” that 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 help support tumours.
Interrupting these systems would help stop cancer spreading.
Other breakthroughs 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.
“It’s a complex ecosystem and there are elements within that ecosystem that lend themselves to more advanced forms of targeting that will present for us a huge number of opportunities to cure more patients and to do so with fewer side-effects.”
Further developments include combining existing treatments for better effect and using immunotherapy to help the immune system fight cancer.
Genetically modified viruses could be used to target cancer cells and “talk to” the cancer ecosystem to send a signal to reject and kill the diseased cells, Prof Harrington said.
Dr Olivia Rossanese, director at the ICR, said: “Newer, more personalised treatments are helping people with cancer to live well for longer, but some types of the disease remain very difficult to treat, and once cancer has spread it is still often incurable.
“We plan to open up completely new lines of attack against cancer, so we can overcome cancer’s deadly ability to evolve and become resistant to treatment.
“We want to discover better targets within tumours and the wider ecosystem that we can attack with drugs.
“We’re finding powerful new ways to eradicate cancer proteins completely and discovering smarter combination treatments that attack cancer on multiple fronts.”
Prof Kristian Helin, chief executive of the ICR, said: “We have created a really exciting plan to unravel and disrupt cancer’s ecosystems with new immunotherapies, drugs to target the tissue environment, and clever new anti-evolution combinations and dosing strategies.
“Research has been a driver for remarkable improvements in treatments in recent decades, but we believe we can go even further and eradicate some cancers by targeting the ecosystems required for their growth or tipping the balance in favour of the immune system.”
