Earlier this month, the World Health Organization delivered a worrying diagnosis. It is estimated that by 2050, cancer cases will increase by 77 percent worldwide. This represents more than 35 million new cases.
In that sense, one of the biggest concerns is that new cases are increasing rapidly in people under 50 years of age.
According to Putin, his country is “very close to the creation of the so-called cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs of a new generation.” | Photo: Abel Mitjà Varela
Hence science is in a race against time. Factors such as the aging of the population, smoking, alcoholism, climate change and obesity have facilitated the increase in numbers, which puts health services on the ropes, especially in less developed countries.
In addition to the announcements made by large pharmaceutical companies around the world, this Wednesday comes that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who surprised the world by assuring during a forum in Moscow on future technologies that his country is “very close to the creation of called cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs of a new generation.”
And he went further: “I hope that they will soon be used effectively as methods of individual therapy.” However, the Russian president – who in 2022 would have hidden evidence of a cancer he suffered and for which he had surgery – did not specify what types of cancer these vaccines would be used for.
The announcement comes after a commission of experts from Lancet Oncology launched an alert and warned that Europe could experience a cancer epidemic in the next decade if research is not prioritized. This is because, due to the pandemic, one million cases of cancer were not diagnosed in Europe, which can delay cancer outcomes by a decade.
Experts from Lancet Oncology issued an alert and said that Europe could experience a cancer epidemic in the next decade if research is not prioritized. | Photo: Peter Dazeley
According to the Lancet Oncology authors, prioritizing cancer research is crucial for European countries to provide more affordable, higher quality and more equitable cancer care, with patients treated in research hospitals having better outcomes than those that they do not investigate.
“Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is more important than ever for Europe to develop a resilient oncology research environment that plays a transformative role in improving prevention, diagnosis, treatment and quality of life for current and future patients, and those who survive cancer,” said Professor Mark Lawler, lead author of the commission.
Putin’s announcement resonates amid the advances of several scientific teams working to find a vaccine against various types of cancer. The dream of a cancer vaccine, capable of stimulating the immune system to fight tumors, is on the horizon of the scientific community.
After several years of few successes, the consolidation of other immunotherapies and the success of messenger RNA (mRNA, in the development of vaccines during the pandemic) have revived the optimism of scientists.
Moderna, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, shared the results of a series of preliminary tests of its skin cancer vaccine in 2022. According to Stéphane Bancel, in statements collected by the AFP agency in 2023, this experimental vaccine against melanoma would be available in just two years.
This opened hope especially in Europe, where skin tumors have grown by 40 percent in the last four years. In the world, the disease claims the lives of about 60 thousand people.
2024-02-14 22:20:33
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