• Question: Will you be able to, in 4-5 years time, create a cure for cancer?

    Asked by 363drgj37 to Thomas, Sanjib, Abid, Donna, Avril on 9 Jun 2017. This question was also asked by nikki, RadiantNebula75.
    • Photo: Thomas Booth

      Thomas Booth answered on 9 Jun 2017:

      Thanks for the question!

      Cancer is tricky.

      The first thing to say is that there are many different kinds of cancer. So although you might hear people talk about a ‘cure for cancer’, ‘cures for cancers’ might be more accurate. Also, in my view, people getting cancer is unavoidable for the time being (although genetic engineering could change this too! – worth a google!). But we can increase the chances of those people who are unlucky enough to get it!

      Many new anti-cancer drugs are being discovered all the time – even in my lab! And these drugs can hopefully be developed into something that can heal people and make their treatment more comfortable.

      Four to five years time? Maybe that’s a stretch. But in the past 30 years, survival rates for cancer sufferers have increased from half to almost eighty percent. So we are making some progress!

    • Photo: Avril Tucker

      Avril Tucker answered on 19 Jun 2017:

      I personally won’t be able to as it is not my area of expertise but I do think that we are making significant progress to that end! I’m not sure it’ll be in 4-5 years however but I do think that it will be in my lifetime. Good question!

    • Photo: Donna Johnson

      Donna Johnson answered on 20 Jun 2017:

      Thats not a very long time in developing drugs so maybe not. There are lots of people working on it though so hopefully we’ll get there eventually.

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