World renowned Cambridge scientists back call for urgent investment

Professor Sir Stephen Jackson, Professor Greg Hannon, Professor Richard Gilbertson and a coalition of the world’s most renowned cancer researchers, have joined forces with Cancer Research UK to call on philanthropists to help tackle the disease.

The group, which includes three Nobel Prize winners, has penned an open ‘letter to the world’ in which they argue that cancer is a “defining health issue of our time” that requires a united and collective worldwide response on a par with COVID-19.

Professor Jackson, Senior Group Leader and Associate Director of Enterprise and Partnership at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, and his fellow eminent scientists assert that we’re at a ‘tipping point’ that could transform how we understand and treat cancer – but more support for life-saving research is needed to beat the disease.

With global cancer cases set to increase by around 50% in the next twenty years, Professor Jackson is supporting the launch of Cancer Research UK’s More Research, Less Cancer campaign – the largest ever philanthropic fundraising drive by a UK charity.

It aims to raise £400m to help fast-track research that could benefit millions of patients in the East of England and across the world.

It comes as Cancer Research UK’s latest analysis reveals around 110,000 deaths could be avoided in the UK alone, over the next two decades, if cancer mortality rates are reduced by 15% by 2040. This could mean around 10,000 fewer people in the East of England dying from the disease during this time.

The inspirational story behind Professor Jackson’s work powerfully brings to life the ‘size of the prize’ at stake and the vast rewards that could come with greater investment. With a Knighthood for innovation and research, his work has saved many lives and helped put Cambridge firmly on the map as an international leader in cancer research. His research has established many of the key principles by which cells respond to and repair DNA damage, and how such understanding can be exploited to better treat cancer.

Professor Jackson said: “Realising we could develop compounds to interfere with DNA repair and setting up the world’s first DNA repair drug discovery company (KuDOS) led to the existence of the drug Olaparib, the first anti-cancer medicine targeted to patients based on them having an inherited predisposition.

“Olaparib has now treated over 75,000 people with ovarian, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers. There are many people alive today who wouldn’t be otherwise. Its development is the most meaningful of my career to date and is without doubt my ‘eureka’ moment. None of this would have been possible without funding from Cancer Research UK, which has provided funding throughout my entire independent scientific career to the tune of between £15-20m – or to their supporters who have given generously, taken up fundraising challenges, attended fundraising events or supported its shops.”

Cancer Research UK spent over £46m in Cambridge last year on some of the UK’s leading scientific and clinical research.

On the urgent need to help accelerate progress, Professor Jackson said: “Cancer remains the number one cause of death in the UK and the global impact of the disease is devastating. So, it’s vital that future advances are not held back by a lack of funding, when so many incredible breakthroughs are almost within our reach.