A new treatment could help transform cancer into a “chronic” disease that can be managed with drugs, according to the Institute of Cancer Research.
The organisation predicts that within five years all patients will have the DNA of their tumour — its genetic code — mapped so that doctors can more effectively target it with medication.
Doctors hope the technique will mean terminally ill patients, who are now given months to live, might continue living for many years longer in relatively good health.
The institute’s chief executive, Professor Alan Ashworth, told the Daily Telegraph: “We should be aspiring to cure cancer but for people with advanced disease, it will be a question of managing them better so they survive for much longer — for many years.
“Cancer often appears in people who are old, and if we can keep them alive long enough for them to die of something else, then we are turning cancer into a chronic disease.”
The technique of genetically profiling tumours is currently used to a certain extent but only a few genes are mapped.
Now the institute wants to build a £3 million database for large numbers of cancer-causing genes called the Tumour Profiling Unit.