Cancer Research in Switzerland - Krebsliga Schweiz

The scientific and medical research conducted
in Switzerland is high level. Our medical care is
excellent, too – also in oncology. So why does
Switzerland need a five-year national cancer programme
in which research and therapy play an
important role? Almost 10 years ago, under the
overall control of Oncosuisse the first National
Cancer Programme was worked out for the period
2005–2010; it also contained a number of aims
in the areas of research and therapy. However, regarding
achievement of these aims the end result
was sobering. All in all, only little progress could
be achieved. This was in part due to the fact that
many of the stated aims were set for the more
distant future. In April 2011, Oncosuisse launched
the second National Cancer Programme for the
period 2011–2015. Within cancer research and
treatment, we face a number of challenges.
Cancer research in the laboratory pursues various
aims. For instance, a research study may aim to find
out why from a healthy cell that has a defined function
and divides only under very controlled conditions
a cancer cell develops. This cell evades the normal
control mechanisms, divides again and again,
invades surrounding tissue and destroys it, separates
from its normal united cell structure and spreads
via the blood to other organs, where it continues to
divide and forms metastases. All of these abnormal
characteristics are based on changes in the genetic
information (DNA) of these cells; these mutations
occur on a huge scale in cancer cells.
Does Switzerland need a new National Cancer
Programme? Thoughts on research and therapy
The stony way from the laboratory to the clinic
To be able to intervene therapeutically, we have to
know the genetic changes, or mutations, of the cancer
cells. Based on this knowledge it is possible to
block their effects. If this type of research is conducted
using animal experiments or human cell lines
in the test tube, the findings may not yet be directly
applicable to tumour disease in humans. Although
we have model systems that are used to investigate
certain mechanisms and processes, their transferability
to humans is limited. If we study human
tumours, the results are frequently not uniform, as
there is mostly considerable variability within the
same tumour disease, such as within breast cancer.
Moreover, it is very difficult to obtain a sufficiently
large number of human tumour tissue samples to
allow reliable findings.
Consequently, there is a long and difficult way from
the results of experimental laboratory research to
successful medical treatment of patients, and it is
here that we must push ahead more and more. For
example, there is a need for more research with
human tumour material that is aimed at directly influencing
the course of the disease. The aim could
be, for instance, to find specific molecular changes.
If such markers were known, we could develop new
medicines or study the mechanisms of resistance to
currently prescribed cancer drugs. Through the latter,
more efficient use of these in part very expensive
drugs could be made possible and many patients
could be spared the side effects of an ineffective
Prof. Richard Herrmann, MD
President of Oncosuisse and former head physician of the Clinic for Medical Oncology at the University
Hospital Basel
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