by Imagine getting a cancer diagnosis, and instead of breaking the devastating news into your family, enduring the shocking treatments and desperately googling the survival rates, it felt more like they had said they had the flu. According to Sir Stephen Powis, the outgoing medical director of NHS England, this could be reality in the not too distant future, thanks to the “treatment revolution” that is already in progress.
Although one of two people falls cancer in his life and gives 385,000 cancer diagnoses every year in Great Britain, “We are about the way we treat a number of cancer in terms of the way we are about a golden era … For many cancer, people should be confident that it is not a death sentence.”
A researcher at a Scottish university has developed AI tools with which remote communities can access fast, life-saving skin cancer diagnoses (Jeff Moore/Pa) (PA wire) to get access to access.
Hayley Brown, Manager for Scientific Engagement at Cancer Research UK, agrees. “In the 1970s, only a fourth people survived cancer for 10 years or longer, now there are two out of four,” she says. “More and more people survive fewer side effects and we can get closer to the day if we can all live free of fear of cancer.” According to Brown, one of the greatest breakthroughs was the development of cancer vaccines that will be introduced to 10,000 patients on the NHS over the next five years.
“Doctors and scientists have been working on cancer vaccines for decades, but they have now reached a point where they see really promising when they boost the survival rates for skin, intestinal, lung, brain and pancreatic cancer,” says Brown. “The vaccines currently tested were developed with the same technology as the Covid vaccine.”
Some, such as Lungvax, are prevented and are administered to patients who are identified as a high risk of developing the disease. Others, such as a melanoma vaccine, receive patients in whom cancer has already been diagnosed to prevent the recurrence.
Science fiction is now a reality
But they are not a one-size fits-fits-fits-anti-cancer shot. A patient’s tumor is removed during the operation, followed by the DNA sequencing of the sample using AI. This information is used to create a tailor -made stitch that is specific for the patient’s tumor. It is the immune system to look for cancer cells and to destroy them with fewer side effects than chemotherapy.
The midwife made false Covid vaccine claims (Nick Potts/Pa) (Pa wire)
“This is one of the most exciting things we have seen for a long time,” says Dr. Heather Shaw, the national coordination researcher for the attempt by the Melanoma vaccine, the first dose of which was delivered to UCLH in 2024.
Brown also refers to Car-T therapy that revolutionizes the treatment of types of blood cancer, which often affect children and adolescents. This includes collecting T cells from the blood of a patient, modifying them genetically to produce proteins, recognize and destroy cancer cells, and then bring the improved immune cells back into the patient. “Our researchers occupy drugs and techniques that once seemed like science fiction and they become a reality,” says Brown.
It is known that the early detection of many cancers dramatically improves survival rates, but biopsies can be invasive and time -consuming. For this reason, scientists are happy of “synthetic biopsies” (forced cancer cells to produce biomarkers and make them easier to demonstrate through PET scans, blood tests and even alcohols) and “liquid biopsies” -blood tests that can diagnose cancer by detecting DNA fragments in plasma.
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In studies at the Institute for Cancer Research in South Kensington, a liquid biopsy was able to predict the risk of breast cancer, which has returned three years before tumors appearing on scans. In the meantime, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University Pac-Mann have developed a test that can absorb signs of pancreatic cancer from only one drop of blood. Eat your heart, Elizabeth Holmes.
Stop cancer before starting
Traditional cancer therapies were long and tedious, but pioneering options with ultra -fast treatments are on the horizon. “New drugs and approaches make the treatment more convenient and accessible to patients,” says Dany Bell, strategic consultant for cancer treatment in supporting MacMillan Cancer.
At the beginning of this year, the NHS announced that this would be the first health service in Europe to offer cancer patients a quick injection of immunotherapy drug Nivolumab. This so-called “Super Jab” takes only five minutes compared to an IV drop that takes up to an hour.
“Immunotherapy is now in tablet form or can be injected at home,” says Bell. In the meantime, they have developed Flash in CERN in Switzerland, an opportunity to provide radiation therapy with fewer side effects than conventional radiation therapy – and it takes less than a second.
The technology is not only used to identify and treat cancer faster than ever before, but also the likelihood that it will take place in the first place. A KI learning model called “Sybil” have developed with -scientists, with which the likelihood of a person can be developed for lung cancer up to six years in advance.
AI models are also used to create algorithms who are looking for patterns in the behavior of a person to recognize early warning signs for the risk of developing cancer.
How quickly can we say that we healed the big C? Brown points out that we already recognize the advantages of preventive measures that have recently been brought in. The NHS is on the right track to end cervical cancer by 2040, thanks to the HPV vaccine introduced in 2008. “There is a lot of hope.”
