This video was put together by the American Association for Cancer Research in advance of their 2010 meeting which was held in Washington, D.C. this past April. The video is very similar in style and format to the “Did You Know” video that we shared with you a few months ago and has been making its way across the internet for several years.
The video inspires an appreciation for the epidemic proportion of cancer, how far cancer research has advanced and how much further there is to go. Some of the facts that I found truly incredible include:
- There are 17,590 P53 citations and 0 FDA approved P53 drugs
- There are 10,421 RAS citations and 0 FDA approved RASdrugs
- The average age for receiving a first grant has gone from 34 in 1980 to 42 today
- There are over 100 cancer genomes that have been sequenced so far, up from only 1 cancer genome sequenced in 1998
One question to ponder is why the lack of FDA approved drugs when so many papers have been published on P53 and RAS? Are we missing something? Are we taking the wrong approach to “solving” such a complex, multi-factorial disease?
What are your thoughts?
Tags: aacr, american association for cancer research, cancer