Cancer Research Matters – The creative act of science

Cancer Research Matters provokes conversation around cancer science, how it shapes our understanding of the disease and the challenges we face as we develop therapies.

The first series focusses on the 20^th anniversary of CRUK – we’ll be winding back the clock on some of the great discoveries and breakthroughs made in the past two decades and asking some leading names where they think we’ll be in another 20 years.

This episode features CRUK Chairman, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz. Following a distinguished academic and clinical research career, Leszek’s roles have included Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council and Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He is a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and was awarded a Knighthood in 2001 for his pioneering work on HPV vaccines. Early teenage girls are now routinely vaccinated for HPV, with the UK having among the highest uptake worldwide.

He talks about the development of the HPV vaccine, the difficulties of navigating a research career and why we must start to embrace failure… even a negative result, he says, is positive.

Further reading on the HPV vaccine:

Journal paper:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02178-4/fulltext

Article:
https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2021/11/03/the-power-of-science-hpv-vaccine-proven-to-dramatically-reduce-cervical-cancer/