Cancer Research

 

Overall, the number of cancer deaths in the UK is falling. In February 2004, Cancer Research UK reported that cancer deaths had fallen by 12% in total between 1972 and 2002 – by 18% in men and by 6% in women. But underpinning this statistic is a very mixed picture in terms of progress in overcoming the disease.
For example:

• Forty years ago, few children survived childhood leukaemia. Now, the survival rate is 80%.
• Forty years ago, 46% of women diagnosed with breast cancer survived five years or more. Now that figure is also 80%.
• Forty years ago, 3% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survived five years or more. That figure is still 3%.

Funding for cancer research comes from three main sources:

• Government – for example, Department of Health, Medical Research Council etc.
• Cancer charities
• Pharmaceutical industries

There are over 200 different kinds of cancer and so it is difficult to put a figure on the level of research funding for each type of cancer. Some of the cancer research funded by the various interested organisations is general and applicable to all cancers.

The National Cancer Research Institute was set up in 2001 to promote a more strategic approach to cancer research, and its initial report looked at the funding for different types of cancer. It was clear that there were marked variations in the amount of money spent on the different kinds of cancer, even when they had similar numbers of cases diagnosed each year. For example, the number of new cases of pancreatic cancer and leukaemia per year is roughly the same – 7,000.

Yet the amount spent on leukaemia research was 17 times that spent on pancreatic cancer. There are a number of factors that influence the level of research funding into a particular type of cancer, including how easy it is to work on, the number of cases diagnosed each year, the level of charity fundraising etc.

We would, of course, wish for all types of cancer to have more funding to improve survival for all patients. We are keen to support pancreatic cancer, as it has seen no improvement in the last forty years and now has a new charity in the form of Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund absolutely committed to changing this.