WINNING AGAINST CANCER

THESE BREAKTHROUGHS ARE REASONS FOR REAL HOPE

- Lia Grainger

A CANCER DIAGNOSIS NO longer means what it used to. Just a few decades ago, the survival rate beyond five years was less than 50 per cent. Now, nearly 70 per cent of those who get cancer survive that long, and that proportion is set to rise. Why? Because, more than ever, chemotherapy and radiation, once the only heavy hitters of cancer treatment, are being paired with or replaced by a slate of new drugs and treatments.

For example, the first medication for what was previously considered an 'undruggable' lung cancer mutation was recently approved in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the UK. And a brand-new precision chemotherapy drug delivered directly to breast cancer tumour cells is giving hope to patients with the aggressive HER2-positive form of the disease.

An even bigger newsmaker has been the promise of a treatment called immunotherapy, as researchers around the world have discovered ways to harness the body's own immune system to battle cancer cells.

Also driving hope is a focus on prevention. Decades of research and public education have led to greater awareness of how lifestyle changes can reduce our risk of developing cancer. According to an article from the journal Pharmaceutical Research and published by the National Institutes of Health, 90 per cent to 95 per cent of cancers can be attributed to environment and lifestyle, rather than to genetic factors.

Here are some of the strides scientists are making against cancer.

PREVENTION

HPV VACCINE

Cervical cancer was once one of the most common women's cancers and the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. In recent decades, Pap test screening led to a decline. But a preventive tool in use for more than a decade-a vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is responsible for more than 95 per cent of cervical cancer cases-has been a game-changer. Here's how: