Targeted drugs the ‘new frontier’ to prevent cancer
Prof Scott Lippman, from the University of Texas, said an understanding of cancer genetics at the molecular and cellular level was providing the basis for screening and early detection initiatives.
“Linking this early detection to targeted tailored therapies for individual groups of high-risk patients is a new frontier in cancer medicine in terms of prevention and treatment of advanced disease,” Prof Lippman said when addressing the sixth international cancer conference at Dublin Castle.
There had been dramatic breakthroughs in colon and lung cancer treatment, heralding an era where targeted drugs would be developed to improve the control of many cancers.
It had already been shown that taking aspirin to reduce the risk of stroke and to treat arthritis also substantially reduced the risk of colon cancer.
“The major challenge now is translating the very important findings from the laboratory and clinical trials into standard clinical practice,” he said.
Prof Mark Lawlor, a molecular geneticist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, said links were now being made to genes, viruses and lifestyles and cancer risk.
“We now know there are links between obesity and the development of cancer so it is very important that we bring everything together.
“The way to move science and medicine forward now is to bring together different disciplines and work towards common goals,” he said.
Prof Lawlor said drugs were being developed to target specific cancers but the long-term effects would have to be examined.
The conference is a collaboration between the Health Service Executive, the Irish Cancer Society, Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital.
Prof Lawlor said the international experts from Ireland, the US, Britain and elsewhere would ensure that everyone attending would learn from the event and that patients would ultimately benefit.
About 200 people are attending the three-day conference and all were seeking an update on the latest developments and challenges on cancer prevention, treatment and care.
Prof John Crown, consultant oncologist at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, said there had been a “very definite, dramatic improvement” in outcomes for patients with colon cancer, even where the disease was at an advanced stage.
He described the advance in the treatment of colon cancer as one of the most heartening stories because nothing seemed to work for these patients in the past 20 years.
ADVANCES in the treatment of childhood leukaemia over the past 30 years have increased the cure rate to 85%, an international cancer conference in Dublin heard yesterday.
Consultant paediatric haematologist Professor Owen Smith said the improvement in treatment outcome was perhaps the single greatest achievement in all cancer therapy over the past 50 years.
Prof Smith, of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, said the “impressive improvement” was achieved by the fine-tuning and combining of drugs already in existence.
He pointed out that no new chemical substances to treat the disease had become available over the last three decades.
But the professor told the conference that curing the remaining 15% of children with the disease would be difficult.
Further improvements in the cure rate could only be achieved with increased knowledge of the disease and further advances in treatments.
“The advances that have been in childhood with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) are now being applied to adolescents and young adults with lymphoid malignancies with impressive outcomes — reminding us that the treatment of childhood ALL continues to serve as a paradigm to improve outcome for all human cancers,” he said.
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