Cancer drug resistance needs urgent attention, says research chief

The biggest challenge facing cancer medicine today is that of drug resistance, a research leader has warned. Paul Workman, chief executive and president of the Institute of Cancer Research, told an audience in London that drug resistance in oncology was a little known problem but one that should be the “focus of all our activity.”

He told a Westminster Health Forum event on drug access, “We have had the success stories of Herceptin, leukaemia drugs, and treatment for prostate cancer. But we are seeing cancer evolution and drug resistance. We are seeing patients given the all clear who then come back for more treatment and find that they are drug resistant.”

One solution, said Workman, was to use combination treatments that attack cancer in …