New drug treatments for cancer: what the future holds

The headline figures from the oncology drugs pipeline look like a sabres-drawn cavalry charge that will sweep all before them. The statistics are impressive – 6484 products in active development across a range of novel mechanisms that can thwart cancer’s most malevolent mutations and variations. More than 2000 of these are first-in-class – according to the GBI Research’s Frontier Pharma: Versatile Innovation in Oncology report1 – as scientists get the upper hand in cracking genetic coding to deliver innovative disease-modifying therapies. Almost a decade of development following the first cancer genome sequencing report in 2006 has elevated the treatment of cancers to unprecedented levels of success. Clinicians now have a formidable arsenal to combat cancer from small molecule inhibitors to cure-delivering immunotherapies. The library of effective drug combinations is growing and, combined with a more muscular use of data, therapies can be targeted and stratified to promise enhanced survival and quality of life for cancer patients. Ambition is in the air. Cancer Research UK has recently invested in a Cambridge laboratory looking for antibodies against specific drug targets and it has launched a Grand Challenge to find ways of “drugging the undruggable” such as the Myc gene, which is an accelerant in a significant number of cancers. The potential suggests a fast approaching “And they all lived happily ever after” moment but, despite the genuine medical triumphs, discovery and delivery seem to run on different tracks and misconnecting timetables. As the consultation period for a recalibrated Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) closes on 11 February, it is timely to ask if the trumpet-blaring is a little too soon and if the pipeline force will be reduced to a trickle by the time the patient is involved?