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Traditionally cancer has been treated with aggressive win-at-all-costs strategies but does this actually work? Is it time to rethink how we approach cancer research and treatment?
In our fixation on battling cancer, have we missed subtler opportunities to manipulate and outsmart the disease? And could these offer us the chance to control cancer long term as well as exciting new opportunities for cure?
The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is launching what it is calling the “world’s first ‘Darwinian’ cancer drug discovery programme” with the aim of delivering a step change in cancer treatment. It will be using AI, new anti-evolution treatments and multi-drug combinations to overcome cancer’s deadly ability to evolve resistance to treatment.
Experts behind drug discovery and cancer evolution research came to the SMC to discuss:
– why is cancer evolution a problem?
– how can we overcome cancer’s ability to resist treatment?
– how will an evolutionary approach change cancer treatment?
– how can we use artificial intelligence in cancer treatment?
– do we need to rethink what it means to ‘cure’ cancer?
– what does this all mean for cancer patients?
Speakers:
Prof Paul Workman FMedSci FRS, Chief Executive, The Institute of Cancer Research, London
Dr Olivia Rossanese, Head of Biology in the new Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery at The Institute of Cancer Research, London
Dr Andrea Sottoriva, Deputy Director of Cancer Evolution in the new Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery at The Institute of Cancer Research, London