For many, the fight against cancer is personal but we have science on our side

Like many people, cancer has been close to me. Fifteen years ago, a close family member was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that doesn’t have many treatment options. He was only 50 years old. In that moment, everything changed, for my family member, his wife and three children, other family members and close friends. Suddenly, everyone’s energy was focused on the battle that had to be won, and personal courage, alongside the encouragement of everyone who knew him created the energy to fight the battle against the disease. A battle that was unfortunately lost.

Cancer Incidence

Living longer comes with a higher chance of being one day affected by cancer because risk rises with age¹. Over the next decade, expectation is that lives lost to cancer in the EU will rise by more than 24%, making the disease the leading cause of death². In 2020, 1.3 million Europeans died from cancer. Europe accounts for a tenth of the world’s population but a quarter of all cancer cases. That means Europeans are disproportionately affected by the disease. The most common forms of cancer in the EU are lung, colorectal, breast, pancreas and prostate cancers. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in the EU³.

Covid-19 badly affected cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment. In the early stages of the pandemic, the diagnosis of invasive tumours fell by 44% in Belgium while, in Italy, colorectal screenings dropped by 46% between 2019 and 2020. In Spain, the number of cancers diagnosed in 2020 was 34% lower than expected⁴. In 2020, as Covid-19 raged, 1.3 million Europeans died from cancer⁵.

Our industry is part of a health ecosystem that is helping to improve outcomes for patients across the disease pathway. One area where innovators can make an outsized contribution is diagnosis and treatment. All this is down to the power of science.

New Science

Although cancer is sometimes considered one disease, it can show up in hundreds of ways. Innovation in areas like immuno-oncology, cell and gene therapy, RNA therapy and precision oncology offer the potential to attack cancer from every angle with the goal of transforming patients’ lives.

Experts have compared immuno-oncology to a racing car. Scientists at BMS have found ways to make our immune systems go faster by developing immunotherapy medicines - ‘checkpoint blockers’ - that can disable the brakes that cancer cells use to fend off an attack on them by immune system T-cells. We are seeing better outcomes for melanoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and cancers that affect the lungs, kidneys, bladder, head and neck.

With a deep understanding of the immune system, BMS has continued to transform cancer care with the development of cell therapy products where a patient’s T-cells are engineered in the laboratory so that they will attack cancer cells for some patients with advanced blood cancers.

The new wave of innovation is reflected in the number of clinical trials used to test the effectiveness of treatments which reached historically high levels in 2021, up 56% from 2016 and mostly focused on rare cancer indications. There is a shared desire to uncover tomorrow’s innovation.

BMS is trying to answer critical biological questions for patients with cancer and other diseases by complementing our internal capabilities with the expertise of external partners.

Accelerated Development

We are pursuing new standards of healthcare with one of the most diverse pipelines in the industry. In cancer, we have pioneered breakthrough medicines. We continue to lead advancements with expertise across multiple platforms, including protein degradation, cell therapy and immuno-oncology.

Our scientists are using data science, advanced clinical trial solutions, and robust digital tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate the medicines development process. Precision oncology, tailored to specific patient needs, is radically changing prognoses and outcomes.

Through translational medicine, we are deepening our understanding of disease biology and uncovering novel biomarkers to help predict how cancer patients will respond to treatment. We understand better now how cancer starts and progresses, as well as how it can be prevented and diagnosed.

All this means we are making progress in the fight against cancer. Just as cancer connects us as a community, so too does the science that strives to defeat it. European policymakers should know that they are part of the fight.

We owe it to cancer patients, in Europe and globally, to make the most of what we know, what we can do together and what we can do for each other.