22.10.19
Cancer Research announces injection of up to £40 million into early detection research
A new transatlantic research alliance was announced yesterday by Cancer Research UK and partners.
Expansions in early detection technologies will help decrease late-stage diagnosis and increase the proportion of people diagnosed at a treatable and early stage, so a future for more patients can be secured.
The International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection (ACED) is a partnership between Cancer Research UK, Canary Center at Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, UCL and University of Manchester.
The charity will invest a cash injection of up to £40 million over the next five years into ACED. Stanford University and the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute will also significantly invest in the Alliance, taking the total potential contributions to more than £55 million.
Their goal is to develop radical new strategies and technologies to detect cancer at its earlier stages.
The earlier cancer is detected the greater the chance the patient has of surviving the disease.
Furthering research into the early stages of cancer and pre-cancerous cells will allow doctors to find accurate ways to spot the disease earlier and where necessary, treat it effectively.
It could even allow ‘precision prevention’ where the disease could be prevented from developing in the first place.
In the UK, statistics show that survival rates improve drastically if the disease is caught early.
Fiver-year survival for six different types of cancer is more than three times higher if the disease is diagnosed at stage one, when the tumour tends to be small and remains localized compared with survival when diagnosed at stage four, when the cancer tends to be larger and has started to invade surrounding tissue and other organs.
Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said:
“Now is the time to be ambitious and develop effective new ways to detect cancer earlier. It’s an area of research where we have the potential to completely change the future of cancer treatment, turning it into a manageable and beatable disease for more people.”
“Real progress in early detection can’t be achieved by a single organisation. Benefits for patients will only be realised if early cancer detection leaders from around the world come together. No more siloes, no more missed opportunities; let us tackle this problem together and beat cancer.”