The most common cancer in the UK – more than 55,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. About 85 per cent of women diagnosed with it in England survive for five years or more and their survival rate has doubled in the last 40 years. There have been several discoveries in treatment. Recently, the first results of a large-scale trial showed that the targeted drug olaparib improved survival rates in women with early-stage breast cancer who have inherited defects in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Added to standard treatment, it reduced women’s risk of death by 32%. PROSTATE Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting British men, with 51,100 new cases each year. One third of those affected are 75 years of age or older. But survival rates are high compared to other cancers, with nearly 90 percent surviving five years or more and nearly 80 percent surviving ten years or more. Surgery, radiotherapy and hormone therapy are among the current treatment options, with a revolutionary new treatment – which uses highly focused ultrasound or cryotherapy beams to target cancer leaving the surrounding tissue intact – circulating in the surrounding tissue. . Researchers say it could help treat 12,000 men a year. LUNG There are around 48,500 new cases of lung cancer in the UK each year and it accounts for one-fifth of all cancer deaths. About 60 percent of patients die within a year of diagnosis, while about 15 percent survive for five years or more. For those in the early stages, surgery is usually offered to remove part of the lung – and the tumor inside. It is usually followed by chemotherapy to kill any cancer cells that have spread elsewhere in the body. In April, experts hailed a “quantum leap” in treatment, thanks to a new dual-drug treatment – giving nivolumab immunotherapy along with preoperative chemotherapy – which could reduce the risk of relapse and boost survival. years. The results of the tests showed that, two years later, patients treated with dual drugs before surgery had a 37% lower risk of relapse, progression and death of the disease compared with those who received chemotherapy alone. Meanwhile, last year the approval of the drug sotorasib for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer was described as one of the biggest recent discoveries for this most common type of lung cancer. INTESTINE Also known as colon cancer, this cancer affects the large intestine, which is made up of the colon and rectum. Around 43,000 men and women are diagnosed in the UK each year and it costs 46 lives every day, making it the third most common cause of cancer death. Nearly 60 percent survive for five years or more. As with many cancers, surgery and chemotherapy are the main treatments, but in recent years there have been many promising developments, such as clinical trials of a drug called adavosertib, taken as a daily pill, which could delay tumor regeneration in patients with an aggressive type of unoperated bowel cancer. Another study looked at drugs that block cancer blood vessels as well as immunotherapies. Meanwhile, another ongoing trial uses targeted anticancer drugs called monoclonal antibodies to treat early bowel cancer. MATRIX Most uterine cancers start in the lining of the uterus. About 9,700 women are diagnosed in the UK each year, making it the fourth most common cancer in women. Survival rates are very high for those diagnosed early, with an overall five-year survival rate of 75%. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for early-stage uterine cancer, with radiation and chemotherapy if there is a high risk of the cancer coming back. Earlier this year, the NHS announced that hundreds of women with aggressive uterine cancer would benefit from the first new treatment in 30 years, the same drug at the heart of the promising colon test, dotarlimab. SKIN Melanoma skin cancer is considered the most dangerous form of the disease because it can grow and spread so quickly to other organs. About 16,000 men and women are diagnosed with cancer and it costs about 2,300 lives each year. The difference between early diagnosis is stark: almost 100 percent of those diagnosed in the first stage will survive for five years or more, dropping to 30 percent for those diagnosed in the fourth stage, the most serious type. Treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. In the last decade, treatment has changed with drugs that control point inhibitors, which release “brakes” on the immune system, releasing its lethal effect against cancer. And last year, the results of a trial of lymph node tumor cell therapy (TIL), a treatment that uses the patient’s own immune system cells to search for and destroy the disease, heralded the hope of a breakthrough. It worked in more than a third of cases, shrinking tumors and, in two patients, eliminating cancer after a single treatment. DO NOT HODGKIN LYMPHOMA One type of lymphoma or blood cancer, about 14,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with it each year. It includes more than 60 different types, is more common in older people, and has a five-year survival rate of about 65 percent. Treatments include chemotherapy, steroids and a combination of chemotherapy and targeted immunotherapy drugs. More recently, some patients who have relapsed or not responded to other therapies have been able to access a high-tech – and 250 250,000, expensive – treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, which involves training immune cells. to search for and destroy the deadly threat from within. It is also applied against some other types of cancer, the whole treatment process – from collecting the patient’s T cells (a type of white blood cell) to transfusing the modified cells back into the patient – takes about a month. PANCREATIC Pancreatic cancer can be difficult to diagnose, with symptoms such as jaundice, nausea, weight loss and pain in the stomach and back. About 10,500 people are diagnosed in the UK each year. About 25 percent survive for a year or more after diagnosis. only 7 percent survive for five years or more. Treatment includes chemotherapy or radiotherapy to kill the cancer cells and surgery to remove them, and this has remained unchanged for several decades. But in addition to this week’s news of a vaccine that could prevent the recurrence of pancreatic cancer, some hope was given last month by an experimental treatment in the US that used gene therapy to make immune cells attack in cancer cells, shrinking tumors in a female patient. KIDNEY Kidney cancer is the seventh most common in the United Kingdom, with 13,140 new cases being diagnosed each year, most often in patients aged 60 and 70 years. Sixty-four percent survive for five years or more. The most common treatment is surgery to remove all or part of the kidney or a non-surgical procedure called “thermal removal”, where parts of the organ are burned or frozen. In some patients, immunotherapy may slow or stop the disease. LEUKEMIA Leukemia is a cancer of the white blood cells. There are different types depending on the cell types that are affected. About 9,800 people in the UK are diagnosed each year. Treatment options include chemotherapy, targeted medications, and stem cell transplants. More than half of patients survive for five or more years. Several drug trials have recently shown promising results in improving survival rates, and the introduction of immunotherapies has been dubbed “game change.” Beth Hale and Sarah Rainey
