New anti-cancer treatments offer the promise of a much "kinder" and effective response to patients, but are confounded by political pressures and lack of funding for research, according to one of the world's leading cancer researchers.
Prof Sir David Lane told a lecture in University College Cork last night that while current therapies were often highly effective, they were sometimes delivered in a less than ideal approach.
Acclaimed for his work into the molecular basis of tumours in humans, Prof Lane delivered the latest in the Distinguished Guest Lecture series hosted by UCC president, Prof G T Wrixon.
According to Prof Lane, the organisation of effective, integrated cancer centres and a rigorous audit of an adequately- funded healthcare system would have a greater impact in the treatment of the disease.
While he held great hopes for a reduction in the death rate and occurrence of cancer in society, "curing cancer" would require radical progress in prevention, early detection and therapy.
However, he said despite the widespread acknowledgement that prevention was the most effective means of controlling disease, efforts to alter smoking habits and improve diet had been confounded by poor communication of risk, political pressures and lack of funding and research.
He said screening was a vital tool in the early detection of cancer, and could have major benefits for society. Rapid advances in cell and molecular biology and in rational drug development were producing highly-effective new anti-cancer treatments, which were less toxic than conventional anti-cancer drugs.