Across the world, cancer has taken millions of people's lives. Raising the awareness and understanding of the disease is a priority for scientists and medical workers in the field.

On Wednesday night (Oct 26, 05), in the science café held by the British Council Beijing office, experts from Britain tackled cancer head on through a range of discussions shared with Chinese audiences.

Reporter:
Cancer is the leading cause of death in humans. One in three people will develop cancer at some point in their lives and most people have experienced family or friends already living with it.

It is a subject that everyone fears, but no one wants to talk about.

Ashok Venkitaraman is professor of Cancer Research in the University of Cambridge. He says the cause of cancer is complex, but the major factors are the genes and the environment.

"There are multiple different factors affecting this undoubtedly very comm. Dis. Sometimes it's the genes…on the other hand not only genes but also the environment matters, and it's the interaction between these two factors that underline the risk of cancer."

There are many different ways to treat cancer. In recent years, as scientific medical research advances, the chance of defeating cancer is more likely than it was before.

Ashok Venkitaraman is optimistic about the future cures for cancer.

"I think it's a very exciting time to be in the field of cancer research because over the last ten years, there has been an enormous increase in our basic understanding of what goes wrong in cancer cells. Based on this understanding, researchers have made big advances in early diagnoses and there have been introductions of new medicines, which are based on the increased understandings."

Proper and scientific understanding can actually prevent cancer. That's why early detection is so important. Cancer that is detected earlier is generally easy to remove and treat. For healthy people, taking care of their body, being alert to any cancer-like symptoms, and having medical check-ups regularly are the best way to prevent cancer. As for the researchers, they still have more things to do.

"Prevention is far better than cure. It's important for researchers to find better methods for the early detection. I and others in the field look forward to the day when we won't have to treat patients, because we can prevent most normal types of cancer."

Well, we hope the day will come.

Yixiu, CRI news
(Real Time Beijing)