Cancer: How science offers us fresh hope

SCAN Patient has MRI but new tools on way

QUICKER DIAGNOSIS

The University of Edinburgh has received £5.4million in Government funding to use AI, infra-red lasers and high-resolution 3D medical imaging to help identify when patients have diseases, such as cancer.

The Universities of Nottingham and Southampton are also involved in the project, which aims to create walk-through X-ray scanners – like those seen in airports – to rapidly detect tumours.

A POTENTIAL VACCINE

In Australia, a team from The Translational Research Institute, in collaboration with The University of Queensland, may have found a vaccine to treat a variety of blood cancers and malignancies.

Lead researcher, Associate Professor, Kristen Radford, said: “We are hoping this vaccine could be used to treat blood cancers, such as myeloid leukaemia, non-hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma and paediatric leukaemia, plus solid malignancies, including breast, lung, renal, ovarian and pancreatic cancers, and glioblastoma. Our new vaccine is comprised of human antibodies fused with tumour-specific protein.”

BUILDING ORGANS

Scientists are now confident they will be able to build human organs from scratch within a decade. The breakthrough was made by a Cambridge University start-up that discovered a way to crack the genetic code of every single cell in the body.

This means that it would potentially be possible to mass produce kidneys, livers and other organs, alongside repairing organs.

BREAKTHROUGH DRUGS

A trial at The Institute of Cancer Research in London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has revealed a new drug, berzosertib, could combat cancer. It targets a cancer cell’s ability to repair its DNA. The drug stopped tumours growing in half of the 40 participants in the trial.