---
title: "5 breakthroughs in cancer research"
date: "2026-10-22T10:26:11+01:00"
modified: "2026-10-22T10:26:13+01:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/5-breakthroughs-in-cancer-research/"
post_id: 11037
---

# 5 breakthroughs in cancer research

![An illustration of a virus and a syringe, representing the HPV vaccine](https://newhumanist.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/2BJYH8M-1-edited-1200x688.jpg)Credit: Tetra Images / Alamy Stock PhotoThe story of cancer touches countless human lives. We are all invested in the race for a cure. But “cancer” encompasses some 200 diseases, each with their own biological quirks, which can’t be eliminated in one stroke.

That said, genuinely remarkable progress is being made. Cancer mortality rates have decreased by almost a quarter in the UK since the 1970s. We have better drugs, better care and better testing. Alongside several breakthroughs in recent years, we have cause for celebration – even if we are still a long way from beating one of humanity’s leading causes of death. These are the headline developments.

The vaccine quietly wiping out a cancer
---------------------------------------

The HPV vaccine, which has been offered to schoolgirls in England since 2008, protects against the human papillomavirus that causes almost all cervical cancer and is linked to other types of cancer, too.

Good luck to any sceptics arguing with the results. Among women in their early twenties in England, not one died of cervical cancer in the five years to 2024. It’s estimated that the vaccine has already saved 200 lives. NHS England started vaccinating boys in 2019 and expects to eliminate cervical cancer altogether by 2040. It’s a triumph.

Smart chemotherapy…
-------------------

Old-fashioned chemotherapy poisons healthy and cancerous cells alike. The newer antibody-drug conjugates are cannier: an antibody seeks out a marker on the tumour and delivers its toxic payload straight to the cell. These drugs are not free of side effects but they can reach tumours that older treatments could not, including more than half of so-called HER2-negative breast cancers.

…and targeted radiotherapy
--------------------------

Radiotherapy usually means firing a beam of radiation into a tumour from outside the body. A newer approach sends the radiation looking for the cancer instead. For advanced prostate cancer, a radioactive molecule latches onto a protein that studs prostate tumour cells, delivering a tiny dose of radiation exactly where it is needed and largely sparing everything else. It is now available on the NHS for men who have run out of other options, and the same trick is being turned against other cancers.

A single blood test for multiple cancers
----------------------------------------

Catching cancer early usually helps. The Galleri test, trialled by the NHS in 142,000 people, screens a single blood sample for signals shed by dozens of different cancers. The results, reported this spring, were double-edged. The test did not, in the end, reduce the number of cancers caught late, which was the trial’s main goal. But it did find many earlier, shifting diagnoses away from the deadliest late stage. It’s a tantalising technology that could transform screening and diagnosis.

Vaccines to train your immune system
------------------------------------

The most striking idea borrows the technology behind the Covid jabs. It’s a personalised cancer immunotherapy designed to teach a patient’s immune system to recognise and destroy their tumour. Researchers sequence a patient’s own tumour, pick out the mutations that make it visible to the immune system and build a bespoke mRNA vaccine. In one early trial in melanoma, the therapeutic neoantigen vaccine roughly halved the risk of the cancer returning. These are early days, but theoretically the same technique could be applied to any solid tumour.

Amid these exciting breakthroughs, it is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on vaccines. One of humanity’s greatest innovations, they are now reaching beyond their capacity to save us from infectious diseases and are turning their superpowers to preventing and treating cancer. Progress was never going to arrive as a single triumphant headline, but emerging super-precise targeted therapies and vaccines suggest we are on the cusp of a new chapter in the cancer story.