LONDON (Reuters) - Cancer cases will double in 20 years but the mapping of the human genome will give scientists new tools to detect and treat the disease that will strike 20 million people a year by 2020, a cancer expert said Monday.
Imaging and biomarkers produced by cancer will speed up diagnosis, surgery will disappear as a major treatment and instead of bombarding the body with toxic chemicals, new pills will be tailored to individual tumors to provide maximum impact and minimum discomfort.
"We are at the beginning of a revolution in cancer care," Professor Karol Sikora, the former chief of the World Health Organization's cancer program, said Monday.
Many of the advances will be due to the so-called "human book of life" that scientists have been deciphering but improvements in imaging techniques, radiotherapy and vaccines will also play a major part.
"New screening technology coupled with drugs and vaccines that prevent cancer will come into routine use. Gene chips will be implanted under the skin and send radio signals to a home computer when abnormal fragments of DNA are detected, prompting further investigations," Sikora said in a lecture at the Royal Society of British Scientists.
But the ability to detect cancer will also put more strain on healthcare systems and clinics because more people will need treatment.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=science&Repository=SCIENCE_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FScience%2FSCIENCE-CANCER-FUTURE-DC_TXT.XML
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Imaging and biomarkers produced by cancer will speed up diagnosis, surgery will disappear as a major treatment and instead of bombarding the body with toxic chemicals, new pills will be tailored to individual tumors to provide maximum impact and minimum discomfort.
"We are at the beginning of a revolution in cancer care," Professor Karol Sikora, the former chief of the World Health Organization's cancer program, said Monday.
Many of the advances will be due to the so-called "human book of life" that scientists have been deciphering but improvements in imaging techniques, radiotherapy and vaccines will also play a major part.
"New screening technology coupled with drugs and vaccines that prevent cancer will come into routine use. Gene chips will be implanted under the skin and send radio signals to a home computer when abnormal fragments of DNA are detected, prompting further investigations," Sikora said in a lecture at the Royal Society of British Scientists.
But the ability to detect cancer will also put more strain on healthcare systems and clinics because more people will need treatment.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=science&Repository=SCIENCE_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FScience%2FSCIENCE-CANCER-FUTURE-DC_TXT.XML
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"Falling even more in love with you...letting go of all I've held on to...I'm standing here until you make me move...I'm hanging by a moment here with you" - Lifehouse
PsychoticIckyThing
AlienSoup Mod
PsychoticIckyThing.Com