Cancer progress and challenges outlined in new analysis
8 reported
A new analysis by a global public health professor describes both advances and ongoing difficulties in cancer treatment, based on recent research presented at a major oncology conference. The article notes that a new drug for pancreatic cancer, daraxonrasib, doubled survival time in a 500-person trial with fewer side effects than chemotherapy. A separate vaccine for head and neck cancer shrank tumors in more than a third of patients in a 102-person trial. However, the piece also highlights a projected global shortfall of 100 million cancer care workers by 2050, and that one in three cancer cases worldwide remain undiagnosed. The author reports a 22% increase in cancer rates among people aged 25-29 in industrialized countries between 1990 and 2019, and that each later-born cohort appears to have a higher risk of developing cancer.
What’s reported
Cancer causes nearly one in six deaths worldwide each year, about 10 million total.
A new pancreatic cancer drug, daraxonrasib, doubled survival time in a 500-person trial with fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy.
A new vaccine, amivantamab, for head and neck cancer shrank tumors in more than a third of patients in a 102-person trial.
A projected global shortfall of 100 million cancer care workers by 2050, including 65 million in nursing and 16 million in diagnostic staff.
One in three cancer cases are undiagnosed worldwide.
In England, 69% of patients started treatment within 62 days of urgent referral; comparable figures were 71% for Scotland, 61% for Wales, and 33% for Northern Ireland.
Cancer rates increased by 22% in the 25-29 age group in industrialized countries between 1990 and 2019.
Five-year survival rates for melanoma and prostate cancer are over 90% in most rich countries; for pancreatic cancer in the UK, just over one in 20 patients survive five years after diagnosis.
Key figures
Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh and author of “How Not to Die (Too Soon)”
One longtime cancer researcher (unnamed) who reported crying after reading the daraxonrasib results
Sources: The Guardian
