Imperial takes the fight to cancer in 2018

This year, researchers at Imperial made several important breakthroughs in understanding and potentially treating aggressive cancer types. The past few decades have seen remarkable progress in the survival rates of some cancers - particularly in the developed world, and particularly for cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and bowel. For example, in the US, breast cancer death rates declined 39% from 1989 to 2015 - with five year survival rates now at around 90% (85% in Western Europe) . Indeed, this year's Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine, Tasuku Honjo, recently said that he believes most cancers will become treatable with immune therapy by 2050. However, the reality is that for certain cancers such as pancreatic, liver and some lung cancers, survival rates have remained stubbornly low in both rich and developing countries and new effective treatments have not been forthcoming. Five year survival rates for pancreatic cancer have remained typically under 15% . Yet there is hope on the horizon.