People diagnosed with common types of cancer in the UK are now twice as likely to survive their disease for at least a decade than those diagnosed in the 1970s. This is thanks to multiple advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, which have helped avoid more than 1 million cancer deaths in the UK since the mid-1980s.
Cancer Research UK has played a major role in these achievements, thereby giving patients precious extra time to live their lives and be with their loved ones. Research funded by the charity, for example, led to the development of radiotherapy, benefiting more than 130,000 patients annually in the UK, and of the HPV vaccine, which is predicted to reduce cervical cancer rates in the UK by almost 90%. It also helped prove the link between tobacco and cancer, and played a role in developing around half of the world’s essential cancer drugs.
This research has only been possible thanks to the generosity of Cancer Research UK supporters. A third of the funding the charity receives are gifts left in wills. The scientific successes of the past, which you can read about below, show how anyone considering leaving a legacy to the charity can be confident of a healthy return on their investment in the future.
Mustard gas and the origins of chemotherapy
Mustard gas killed tens of thousands of combatants during the first world war, and scientists later observed that it destroyed bone marrow and lymphatic tissue, leading them to wonder whether it could destroy cancerous white blood cells too.
In 1942, researchers in the US successfully treated a patient with advanced lymphoma using nitrogen mustard, a compound used to make mustard gas. Some later saw this as the birth of chemotherapy.
Chemist Alexander Haddow, director of London’s Chester Beatty Research Institute, which was funded by one of the charities that later merged to form Cancer Research UK, went on to discover how nitrogen mustard kills cancer cells, and to tweak it so it became more effective and less toxic. This laid the foundations for the development of some key chemotherapy drugs, including chlorambucil, melphalan and busulfan, which are still in use today to treat blood and immune system cancers.
1978
The role of research in the banning of asbestos
Asbestos was used in products from piping and insulation to car parts and protective clothing during the 20th century. Its tiny fibres can become lodged in the lining of the lungs – potentially causing asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Influential research, published in 1978 and funded by a forerunner organisation of Cancer Research UK, showed there was no evidence of a safe level of asbestos exposure. This helped bring about a UK ban on the most harmful types of asbestos in 1985 and a total ban in 1999.
Combination chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma
Half a century ago, most cancers were treated with surgery followed by radiotherapy. The few available chemotherapy drugs were used one at a time, with doctors only switching to others when patients relapsed. In the late 1960s, US scientists showed that many people with Hodgkin lymphoma given the combination of mustine, Oncovin, prednisolone and procarbazine, known as MOPP, recovered well – however, many suffered nerve damage.
Then in the 1970s, Cancer Research UK-backed researchers at St Bartholomew’s hospital, in London, used vinblastine instead of Oncovin, which kills cancer cells in a similar way. In 1978, they published a long-term study on the effects of the combination therapy that became known as MVPP. This revolutionised treatment of the disease by reducing side effects and today, thanks to further advances in the following decades, 75% of people with Hodgkin lymphoma survive. The introduction of combination chemotherapy to the UK also had a huge positive impact on how we treat other cancers, and it remains a cornerstone treatment along with surgery and radiotherapy.
Left: this scan shows a patient with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The cancer has been highlighted using a radioactive label, which allows accurate localisation of tumours and more targeted treatment. Right: cisplatin, a platinum compound used as a chemotherapy drug. Photographs: Science Photo Library
Platinum-based cancer drugs
Alexander Haddow also played a key role in the development of cisplatin; an important chemotherapy drug used to treat many different cancers – including testicular cancer, for which the death rate has fallen considerably and today, with chemotherapy and surgery, 98% of men are cured.
During the 1960s, researchers in the US who applied an electric field to bacteria growing in cell culture found this prevented them dividing and growing. They discovered this was down to the electrodes they were using being made of platinum, rather than the electricity itself. Further tests showed that platinum compounds could kill cancer cells in culture.
And Cancer Research UK’s scientists would play a role in refining platinum-based drugs. After hearing about this discovery, Haddow tasked a fellow researcher with testing the anti-cancer potential of cisplatin, one of the platinum compounds identified in the US research. This led to trials at London’s Royal Marsden hospital, which showed promising results in women with ovarian cancer. Platinum-based drugs are now some of the most effective cancer treatments to date.
1982
Targeted cancer therapy
In 2001, Time magazine featured the drug imatinib on its front cover, hailing it as ushering in a new era of targeted cancer therapy. Two decades earlier, scientists led by Sir Walter Bodmer, then director general of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), showed that ABL, a gene involved in cell division, was located on a particular chromosome, part of which had previously been shown to break off and stick to another chromosome in most people with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). The ICRF later merged into Cancer Research UK.
Further research found that ABL was involved in this process, and that its fusion with another gene triggered unregulated white blood cell growth and CML.
Scientists went on to develop imatinib to block this process, transforming the lives of CML patients by replacing debilitating treatments such as interferon and stem cell transplants with one tablet taken once a day, as well as setting the foundations for many more targeted therapies to treat other types of cancer.
1987
Laying the groundwork for Herceptin
In 1987, scientists funded by the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC), which later merged into Cancer Research UK, found there were unnaturally high levels of a protein called HER2 in some breast cancer cells. This led to the development of Herceptin, a drug that stops cancer cells growing and dividing by attaching to HER2. Today it is a key part of treatment for around one in five breast cancers.
One patient, Helen, was treated with Herceptin and tamoxifen, as well as having chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery following her diagnosis with breast cancer in 2014. Before being diagnosed, she was looking into doing a course to become a personal trainer. She was determined to continue exercising and even cycled to hospital for her chemotherapy sessions.
Left: Helen, who received advanced combination therapy following her diagnosis with breast cancer in 2014. Right: cell culture of human breast cancer. Photograph: Ewa Krawczyk/National Cancer Institute/Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center/National Institutes of Health
Following her recovery, Helen did an eight-week course and within a month had found a new job. “Now I couldn’t be happier, and I think that it was the best thing for me,” she says. “It was terrifying changing my career, but it’s working out and I am now qualified to train people who have had cancer treatment too.”
1988
Genetic test saves children from rare eye cancer
Retinoblastoma is a rare eye cancer seen in one in every 15,000-20,000 births. A child born to a parent with familial retinoblastoma has a 45% chance of inheriting a defective copy of the RB1 gene and is considered to be at high risk of developing the cancer.
In 1988, researchers at the ICRF developed a genetic test for inherited retinoblastoma, enabling earlier treatment and improved prognosis. As a result, almost every child with inherited retinoblastoma survives for five years or more after diagnosis.
Shaping tamoxifen treatment
Some 70-80% of breast cancers grow in response to the hormone oestrogen. Tamoxifen, created in 1966, stops the growth of cancer cells by blocking the receptors that oestrogen would otherwise attach to. However, even after it was approved for use in the UK in 1972, doctors were still unsure how best to use the drug and which patients would benefit most from taking it.
A 1988 review of 28 trials involving more than 16,000 women clarified its benefits in different age groups and optimal doses. The ICRF and the CRC provided funding for the study.
Nevo, who survived breast cancer with the help of the drug tamoxifen
Nevo took tamoxifen for five years following her diagnosis with breast cancer in 2012. “I am passionate about early detection, and want people of African and Caribbean communities to know that they are not alone,” she says. “Thanks to the research that produced tamoxifen, I am alive to continue doing the things I love, helping people and performing with my choir!”
1990
Stem cell transplants for blood cancers
Some people with blood cancers need stem cell transplants from matched donors to replace bone marrow cells destroyed by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. A 1990 study showed that a protein called granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), which occurs naturally in the body, triggers increased production of stem cells. The research was supported by the CRC.
Today, most adult stem cells are collected from the peripheral blood of donors given synthetic G-CSF, sparing them from invasive bone marrow harvesting. This has enabled more people to donate stem cells and therefore more patients to receive this life-saving treatment.
2000
Boosting lymphoma survival
B-cells play a key role in fighting infections, however when they stop functioning they can grow uncontrollably and cause lymphomas.
Rituximab is part of a group of targeted drugs called monoclonal antibodies that work by targeting specific receptors on the surface of cells. It locks on to a protein on the surface of B-cells, labelling them for destruction by the immune system. The ICRF supported early clinical trials that showed patients with certain B-cell lymphomas responded well to rituximab.
2010
Anal cancer
A Cancer Research UK and University College London trial showed that anal cancer patients were a third less likely to die in the long term thanks to a new treatment combination.
The six-year trial had 577 participants with anal cancer who were monitored for an average of 13 years. Around half of those received the standard treatment for anal cancer, radiotherapy, while the rest received a new form of combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment (CRT). Twelve years later, 34% of the patients who received CRT had suffered a relapse, compared with 59% who received radiotherapy alone, setting a new standard for CRT as the treatment for anal cancer patients worldwide.
2012
Transforming treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia
Cancer Research UK-funded scientists led clinical trials of combination chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia. They found that adding the targeted monoclonal antibody drug gemtuzumab ozogamicin to initial chemotherapy reduced the chances of relapse and improved three-year survival significantly – the treatment is still used across the world today.
2014
Children with neuroblastoma live longer thanks to faster chemotherapy
Giving chemotherapy to children with advanced neuroblastoma with shorter intervals between sessions than the previous norm increased their chances of living for at least five years after their diagnosis by two-thirds. A 10-year trial, published in 2008 and funded by Cancer Research UK, found five-year survival among those treated every 10 days during their initial chemotherapy was 30%, compared with 18% for those on the then standard regimen of every 21 days.
Neuroblastoma cells from a type of cancer that affects mostly young children. Photograph: Science Photo Library
Making lung cancer a priority
Lung cancer is the third most common cancer, with around 48,500 new cases a year in the UK. From 2014, researchers leading the TRACERx study gathered data from patients with the most common form, non-small cell lung cancer, who had never smoked. Since then, TRACERx, which is funded by Cancer Research UK, has helped reveal: how air pollution can cause lung cancer; details of how the disease is able to resist treatment; and how blood tests can be used to track lung cancer.
Kelly felt fit when she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015. She was running six days a week, but her diagnosis meant she was unable to take part in the Manchester marathon in 2016. As well as having surgery and chemotherapy, she took part in the TRACERx study. “As part of the trial they took regular blood samples. Five years on from my surgery and chemotherapy, I was given the all clear,” says Kelly.
“Eight weeks after my treatment finished, I was able to take part in a 10k Race for Life and I did the London marathon for Cancer Research UK in 2023 too!”
Today
Within our lifetimes, great strides have been made to double cancer survival in the UK.
Today, thanks to the HPV vaccine, researchers are as close as they’ve come to eliminating a form of cancer, reducing cervical cancer rates by almost 90% in women in their 20s.
In November 2023, a Cancer Research UK-funded trial showed that the drug anastrozole can halve the risk of women with a family history of breast cancer from developing the disease.
Advances in technologies have led to cancers being detected earlier and therefore treated sooner, and research means there are frequently new discoveries being made in how we treat, diagnose and prevent cancer.
Funding the future
A pledge of a gift in your will could lead to investments in research that further change the outcomes for people affected by cancer, helping them live longer, better lives. The achievements over the past 50 years have been extraordinary and demonstrate the power of scientific innovation in the fight against all forms of the disease. Leaving a gift in your will is an effective way to ensure that the funding is there to drive the next 50 years of cancer research too.Gifts in wills are vital to accelerating progress, and fund one-third of Cancer Research UK’s work, enabling lifesaving breakthroughs. To find out how you can help fund the next 50 years of progress by pledging a gift, visit cruk.org/giftsinwills
