In the framework of the commemoration of World Cancer Research Day on September 24, The Argentine Chamber of Specialty Medicines (CAEME), which represents pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies that research, develop and market innovative medicines in the country, highlighted how Given that more than 200 different types of cancer have been discovered to date, research and development in the field of cancer have successfully transformed the impact of this disease, or rather, a range of diseases.
“Cancer research enables the progressive development of increasingly effective and safe treatments and better care for cancer patients, always with the goal of improving their survival rates and quality of life. “The ultimate goal is to cure this disease or make it chronic,” said CAEME Medical Director Dr. Susana Baldini.
Although many cancer cases are not associated with preventable risk factors, More research on cancer shows that up to 50% of cases are cancer and can be avoided through a healthy lifestyle: physical activity, a varied and balanced diet, limited or no alcohol intake, zero tobacco and no harmful schedules exposure to the sun, and the use of sunscreen.
“Today we know that almost half of all cancer cases could be prevented through these measures. Another equally powerful measure is to keep the vaccination program up to date, as many cases of liver or cervical cancer secondary to hepatitis B could be avoided through the HPV vaccine.“Experts say.
on the other hand, Scientific innovation has also enabled the average survival rate of patients diagnosed with cancer to reach 50%. Not long ago there were things that would have been unimaginable. In addition, great progress has been made in recent years in the development of drugs for the late or metastatic stages of certain types of cancer, significantly extending people’s lives.
More innovations in cancer
Clinical activities in oncology represent the majority of R&D activity in the pharmaceutical industry and innovate on many novel models. Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in therapies with specific and innovative mechanisms of action.
75% of oncology trials launched in 2022 evaluate potential treatments for solid tumors. Similarly, while the proportion of oncology-hematology trials is small, it grew by 30% between 2017 and 2022, with more than 550 trials starting in 2022. Most oncology trials focus on rare types of cancer (56% of them starting in 2022).
Currently, according to data from CAEME’s internal survey, Among all the clinical studies ongoing in my country, 25.4% are studying molecules of different types of solid tumors, and 6.3% are studying molecules of tumor and blood diseases.
“Perhaps the most innovative are the different mechanisms of action or highly advanced therapeutic categories that are already available or in development, including targeted therapies, immunotherapies, cell or gene therapies (approximately 500 such therapies are in development), including prevention sexual and therapeutic treatments. For example, therapeutic vaccines based on platforms such as messenger RNA, which make it possible to develop a vaccine against COVID-19,” Dr. Baldini emphasized.
It is expected that by 2040, there will be 29.5 million cancer cases worldwide each year, but due to the impact of cancer research, The National Cancer Institute predicts that by 2030, there will be 22.2 million cancer survivors worldwide.
“The escalating progress recorded recently makes us optimistic about the near future. We believe we are getting closer every day to mitigating this scourge. There is still a long way to go, so we must continue to shed light on the different people involved work to find answers to ongoing unmet needs because we know the impact of cancer on a person’s life, the environment as a whole, and the burden it places on society as a whole,” CAEME concluded.