Cancer should be controllable within the next 50 years. This is one of the predictions the Director General of The Cancer Research Campaign, Professor Gordon McVie, is to share at a public lecture in Edinburgh. Speaking at The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Professor McVie will say that we are turning a technological corner as the human genome is allowing us to pick out genes which cause cancer. With that knowhow we will be able to develop early diagnostic tools, preventative strategies and tailor-made treatments for the illness. Part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, Professor McVie’s lecture entitled Cancer Research Delivers – At Last! will explore how the last 30 years have seen an improved cure rate in 46 of the 47 main cancers in adults and every single kind of cancer in children. The lecture is being today at 5pm.

Professor McVie says 

"We are about to experience a genetic revolution which will see a leap in cure rates for cancer and a whole range of new, effective treatments. Cancer may not be cured by 2050, but it will be beaten and will be as readily controlled as diabetes is today".