Drive to target specific cancers

Cancer Research UK will spend around £300 million a year for five years on core areas of science to reduce cancer deaths - including greater investment in those areas where survival rates remain poor.

It will confront pancreatic, oesophageal and lung cancer, which fall into this category.

A spokeswoman said it would continue with its high quality research programmes to improve understanding of all cancers. "In the next five years, improvements in early detection and screening will be specifically targeted, enabling doctors to diagnose cancer earlier when it has a better chance of being successfully treated," she said.

It will also establish up to 20 'centres of excellence' across the UK, linking research activities with patient care, public engagement and prevention initiatives.

Chief executive Harpal Kumar said: "Huge progress has been made in beating cancer over the past 30 years, both through reducing the number of people getting cancer in the first place and through doubling survival. This has had a significant impact on reducing the number of cancer deaths - and Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of this.

"But progress has been faster in some areas than others. This strategy focuses our attention on those areas which will have the greatest impact on reducing cancer deaths in the future and on achieving our goals."

Survival rates have improved for almost all the common cancers and in many cancer types the progress has been dramatic, the charity said. Breast cancer now has a 20 year survival rate of nearly 70%. Testicular cancer, melanoma and Hodgkin's disease now all have 10 year survival rates of more than 80%. But only around 5% of those with pancreatic, oesophageal or lung cancer will survive for this long.

"Cancer Research UK already carries out significant research in these fields, but prognosis remains poor," the spokeswoman said. "The charity has started to promote increased research activity in these cancers by seeking advice from leading experts from across the world to highlight which areas would benefit most from Cancer Research UK's investment.

"The outcomes of these discussions will form the basis of major new initiatives to tackle both pancreatic and oesophageal cancer - and a commitment to increase further our funding in lung cancer research - the UK's biggest cancer killer."