Question: hi @chris, have you seen a definite progression in cancer reasearch since you started in the field and if so, do you think that these cures will mae a huge differance to mankind in the grand scheme of things? do you also think that maybe the amount of money being put into cancer research is being well spent?

Chris Kettle answered on 19 Jun 2012:

Nice question!

I have seen a huge progression. Google imatinib and chronic myeloid leukaemia and you will see that a fatal disease 10 years agao, when i started, is now pretty much cureable, with a lifetime of medication.

On the grand scheme of cures…. if we cure everything then people won’t die and we’ll have to start putting restrictions on family sizes otherwise resources will run out – people need to die, or not be born – we can’t have it both ways.

Cancer research money is very well spent. My only concern is that pharmaceutical companies are investing the most monies as they see a big profit to be made from the drugs, like imatinib, that they can make. The trouble is, as they are only interested in the big profit areas, the rarer cancers get missed out — but that is where cancer research comes in.

Grest question