The Guardian view on cancer treatments: new hope for patients now and in the future | Editorial
A drug for pancreatic cancer shows immense promise, but we shouldnât forget research in the field is a story of small victories It is unlikely
A drug for pancreatic cancer shows immense promise, but we shouldnât forget research in the field is a story of small victories It is unlikely that we will ever declare a final victory over cancer. Governments have often promised it: from Nixonâs 1971 âwar on cancerâ to the 2016 ObamaâBiden plan to fight and cure it âonce and for allâ and Sajid Javidâs 2022 âwar on cancerâ initiative in the UK.
But framing it this way can obscure how real progress is made: not in stunning routs, but in stalling and turning back the advance of this terrible condition â often in simply giving people more time to live. Several such breakthroughs, and a bigger one that could transform the treatment of multiple kinds of cancer over the next decade, emerged at last weekâs American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.
As the Guardian revealed, there is a new jab effective against head and neck cancers in some patients, and a new immunotherapy that could spare bladder cancer patients invasive and life-changing surgery. Most significantly, there is a new drug called daraxonrasib, which doubled survival time for pancreatic cancer patients in a recent clinical trial.
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