Powis, the outgoing national medical director of NHS England, said: \u201cWe are at the cusp of a golden era in terms of the way we treat a range of cancers. People are living longer with cancers and surviving cancers, and we are curing some cancers, and that trend will continue over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many cancers now, people should be confident that it\u2019s not a death sentence and that more treatments will become available.<\/p>\n
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Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the outgoing national medical director of NHS England, is optimistic about the future<\/p>\n
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE<\/p>\n
\u201cOur understanding of the genetics of cancer, of the way we can target cancers with particular drugs, and how we can use the body\u2019s own immune system to target cancers itself, is being revolutionised.\u201d<\/p>\n
One in two people will get cancer in their lifetime, and there are 385,000 cancer diagnoses each year in the UK. Improvements in care mean one in two people now survive for at least ten years, compared to just one in four in the early 1970s. For breast cancer, three in four women now survive for ten years after diagnosis.<\/p>\n
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The NHS is beginning to tailor cancer treatment to individual patients and cases<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
In his final interview before retirement, Powis said he expects \u201cgreat advances in cancer survival\u201d to continue as scientists develop drugs which harness the immune system to destroy cancer in a \u201cgolden age of cancer treatments\u201d. <\/p>\n
One of the most exciting developments is the field of personalised cancer vaccines<\/a>, a type of immunotherapy which trains the body to kill cancer cells, using the same mRNA technology used in the Covid vaccine. <\/p>\n The vaccines have shown promise in boosting survival for skin, bowel, lung, brain and pancreatic cancers, and will be given to up to 10,000 patients on the NHS over the next five years.<\/p>\n Powis, who qualified as a doctor 40 years ago this month, compared the progress against cancer to the advances in preventing and treating Aids during his career. <\/p>\n \u2022 Five-minute \u2018superjab\u2019 for 15 cancers to be available on NHS<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n He said: \u201cAs a young doctor, I saw the terrible pain and the death HIV\/Aids caused to patients. Then, as you roll the clock forward, you see treatments coming in, successful therapies. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are now at the point where it is a condition that can be managed, and people can live a normal life that just couldn\u2019t have been imagined back in those dark days of the 1980s. When you look at that wider time frame, then goodness me \u2014 doesn\u2019t medicine advance?\u201d<\/p>\n He said a focus on prevention, such as the smoking ban for younger generations<\/a>, means certain cancers will be eliminated. The NHS is on track to end cervical cancer by 2040 thanks to the HPV vaccine. <\/p>\n Powis said: \u201cSome of the diseases I\u2019ve seen over my 40 years will be rare diseases for doctors in the next 40 years. The lung cancers that I\u2019ve seen hopefully will be a lot rarer because of the interventions that we made.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t prevent all cancers, but there are cancers that we can certainly prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n In a world first, the NHS has started to offer lung and breast cancer patients DNA blood tests that identify the genetic profile of their tumours, so they can be fast-tracked on to personalised treatment plans, which gives them a better chance of survival. <\/p>\n Powis said: \u201cCancer treatment will get much more individualised. That\u2019s being driven by genetics. The ability to pinpoint the mutation in cells that is causing the cancer is infinitely better than it was only 10-20 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Powis, a kidney specialist who is a professor at University College London, has served as the national medical director of NHS England since January 2018. He led the health service\u2019s response to the Covid pandemic, appearing at Downing Street press conferences. <\/p>\n He is being replaced by Professor Meghana Pandit, an obstetrician, and Dr Claire Fuller, a GP.<\/p>\n Powis is working with Professor Sir Chris Whitty, England\u2019s chief medical officer, on a review aiming to improve training and working conditions for young doctors in the NHS.<\/p>\n Reflecting on his career, he said medicine has \u201cbecome less paternalistic, and that is a very very good thing indeed\u201d, and it is important that the profession attracts people from more diverse backgrounds.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t come from a family of doctors. My father started off life as a miner in north Wales, and most of my relatives on my father\u2019s side were miners,\u201d Powis said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important that we have a diverse range of people coming into medicine, and it\u2019s as representative as the people that we treat as possible. <\/p>\n \u201cIt helps address health inequalities. One of the things that is most important as a doctor is seeing the world through the lens of the patient you\u2019re treating.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Doctors\u2019 strike: hospitals face bill of \u00a34,000 a shift<\/b><\/a>
\u2022 Ten-year NHS plan: summary of the key points<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n