Do you believe we will find a cure for cancer?

Cancer is one of the most visible and common diseases in the world.

Scarcely anyone isn’t affected by cancer in some way, whether by being diagnosed themselves or knowing a friend, family member or colleague who has been.

In the UK, there are over 350,000 new cases of cancer a year. While the survival rate is much higher than it once was – right now the chances of surviving for 10 or more years is 50% – too many people still lose their lives to this tragic disease.

Charities like Cancer Research UK spend a huge amount of money on research – more than £432 million was funnelled towards research projects in 2016/17.

With so much resource around the world devoted to understanding cancer and providing better treatment options, many people believe it’s only a matter of time before we find a cure.

Others are not so sure – cancer itself isn’t a single disease, but a class of diseases characterised by an out of control cell growth. It can start almost anywhere in the human body.

While we understand many contributing factors – harmful things like smoking and excessive drinking, for example – no one trigger means to a certain extent every person’s experience with cancer and treatment is unique.

Today at Speakers Corner we’re asking: do you believe we will find a cure? Or will it be a matter of finding more effective treatments? What do you think research should be focused on?