Doctors use many different drugs to treat cancer, and
researchers around the world are working hard to develop new
ones. But what about designing drugs that actually prevent the
disease? One of our promising young researchers is aiming to do
just that. We’ve just awarded a prestigious fellowship to Dr
Geoff Wells at the London School of Pharmacy so he can carry out
research into drugs that could protect cells from turning
cancerous – an approach known as chemoprevention. Such drugs
could be used to prevent cancer in people who are known to have
an increased risk of developing cancer – such as someone who has
inherited a faulty gene from their parents that raises their
risk of cancer. So developing chemopreventative drugs could save
lives. And Dr Wells has formulated an exciting plan for going
about it. Our cells contain DNA, the genetic material we inherit
from our parents. The majority of cancers are the result of
damaged DNA that accumulates over a person’s lifetime, which can
occur through exposure to cert