Experts say the medical world is currently experiencing an unprecedented time of progress in the fight against cancer, helped by a new generation of targeted drug treatments.
Survival rates from the disease have already doubled in the past 40 years.
Meanwhile, huge advances in the understanding of the faulty genes which drive cancer growth have led to improved treatments with less side effects.
Researchers at London’s Institute of Cancer Research discovered several years ago that cancer survives through Darwinian evolution.
Professor Johann de Bono is in charge of nearly 40 of the cancer drug trials at the centre.
“Resistance is a major issue because these are cancers that are genetically unstable, they can change and they evolve, we call this clonal evolution,” he said.
But new drugs have given patients a fresh chance.
By using these drugs in varying combinations, scientists are trying to keep pace with cancer resistance.
Currently, one in two cancer patients will live at least a decade, and that proportion continues to increase yearly.
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