Conservative Jens Spahn has used World Cancer Day to stick by his controversial prediction that cancer can be eradicated within 10 to 20 years. His remarks provoked an outcry from some in the medical community.
"We want to defeat cancer by controlling it. That will not be easy. But that's why we have to try it, with courage and ambition," he told the Rhein Neckar Zeitung newspaper's February 4 World Cancer Day edition. "It's important that we set ourselves big goals."
The minister stressed that there had been significant advances in cancer diagnosis, therapy and research in recent years, drawing parallels with the fight against HIV/AIDS.
"Who would have thought 30 years ago that life expectancy with a well-treated HIV infection would be as high as without an infection?"
That Germany has one of the lowest HIV infection rates in the world "gives us confidence that we can make a difference," he said.
Is it bad luck, genes or environment? Some risk factors for cancer may be outside of our control, but others are not. Seven tips to reduce your cancer risk.
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Stop smoking
Tobacco use is the single greatest avoidable risk factor for cancer mortality worldwide, causing an estimated 22 percent of cancer deaths per year. Besides smoking, also chewing tobacco or snuff can lead to cancer. And even second-hand smoke, which is the inhalation of smoke in the environment, has been proven to cause lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.
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Choose the right dose of sunrays
Skin cancer is one of the most common kinds of cancer — and one of the most preventable. Stay out of the sun when the sun's ultraviolet rays are intense. They are strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Cover exposed areas with hats, clothes and sunglasses and use sunscreen. UV-emitting tanning devices are now also classified as carcinogenic to humans.
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Get cancer screenings
Some types of cancer can be found before they cause symptoms. Therefore regular self-exams, for instance of your skin and breasts, and cancer screenings can help find and treat some types of cancer early. Not for all types of cancer screening tests are available. Talk to your doctor about the options and what is useful for you.
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Get active and control your weight
There is a link between overweight and obesity to many types of cancer. Regular physical activity and the maintenance of a healthy body weight, along with a healthy diet, will considerably reduce cancer risk. Diets high in fruits and vegetables may have a protective effect. Conversely, excess consumption of red and preserved meat may be associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer.
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Avoid infections
Infectious agents are responsible for almost 22 percent of cancer deaths in the developing world and 6 percent in industrialized countries. Viral hepatitis B and C cause cancer of the liver; human papilloma virus infection causes cervical cancer. Ask your doctor about vaccination Options. The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which you can see in the picture, increases the risk of stomach cancer.
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Be reasonable with alcohol
According to the World Health Organization, the risk of cancer increases with the amount of alcohol consumed. Alcohol use is a risk factor for many cancer types including cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colorectum and breast.
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Avoid pollutants
According to the World Health Organization, environmental pollution of air, water and soil with carcinogenic chemicals accounts for one to four percent of all cancers. Exposure to carcinogens also occurs via the contamination of food by chemicals, such as aflatoxins or dioxins. Indoor air pollution from coal fires doubles the risk of lung cancer, particularly among non-smoking women.
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Second biggest killer
According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second-leading cause of death globally after cardiovascular diseases. It was responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018.
Spahn said World Cancer Day was part of a campaign to raise awareness and educate people about cancer risk factors, such as smoking, which is responsible for nearly 22 percent of cancer deaths worldwide. Poor eating habits and lack of physical activity are the other major causes.
Spahn said screenings for colorectal and cervical cancer — two forms of cancer with high cure rates when detected early — would be expanded in Germany. He also said he was pushing for all German adolescents to receive the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer.
Spahn drew criticism from health experts and patient groups on Friday when he first spoke to the media about his cancer outlook.
Ulrich Keilholz, director of Charite Comprehensive Cancer Center in Berlin, told the Funke Media Group that the aim of beating cancer in the next 10 to 20 years had been repeated again and again since the 1960s.
"This is a very common hope, [and] it simply doesn't work that way," he said.
Carsten Bokemeyer, director of the Cancer Center of the Hamburg-Eppendorf University Medical Center, said that while there would be "massive progress" in treatment over the next 10 years, "cancer is a scourge of humanity, which is created in the cells."
And those cells have the ability to constantly adapt and develop resistance to new therapies, he said.
Others accused the minister of behaving irresponsibly and raising false hopes.
"The rate of new cancer cases in Germany has almost doubled since the 1970s. Nearly 500,000 people contract cancer every year, and about 220,000 die from it," Eugen Brysch, chairman of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, told the German Catholic News Agency (KNA). "A health minister should not lose the trust of patients for a headline."
Cutting-edge cancer research
Researchers in the German-speaking world are honing in on tantalizing cancer therapies. The problem? Those which leverage the immune system can have catastrophic consequences.
Image: Fotolia/S. Bähren
Just add oxygen
Depriving tumors of oxygen is one way to reduce their size. Swiss stomach cancer scientists at the UniversitätsSpital Zürich are trying the opposite. After normalizing a tumor's blood vessels with an ITPP molecule, they then flood it with oxygen. The process amplifies the effects of chemotherapy and other radiation and builds on successful US experiments with mice.
Lemon spritz
One unusual approach uses lemons to halt the spread of liver cancer. Researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum are using the fruit's aromatic terpene compounds as a "key" to open up cancerous carcinoma cells. The open floodgates cause calcium levels to spike and halts the cells' ability to spread.
Image: picture alliance/David Ebener
Immunotherapy
But it's the field of immunotherapy where the research is most exciting. Immunotherapy kickstarts the immune system into attacking cancerous growths. The problem: Our immune systems consider as "safe" roughly 99.9 percent of cancer proteins. Thus, researchers must teach it to turn on those proteins, but without overdoing it and causing an auto-immune response.
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Mutated proteins
One method: Vaccines. "The aim is to activate the immune system to specifically recognize mutated [brain tumor] proteins," says Prof. Dr. med. Michael Platten of the University of Heidelberg's brain clinic. Platten's T-cell studies have reduced or eliminated tumors in mice with human-like immune systems. He and his colleagues will begin a Phase I trial with 39 patients this year.
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Seven patients
Another tantalizing immunotherapy involves antibodies. Prof. Dr. Helmut Salih and his colleagues at the University of Tübingen used their own antibody treatment on seven patients. Generally, antibodies work by "blocking" good cells from being infected by cancer cells. Though early results showed cancer cells disappearing before quickly returning...
Image: Universität Tübingen
Postcards from France
…one case stands out. Above is Dr. Salih's "favorite graph," showing leukemic cells vanishing from a 59-year-old French-national's body. Salih still receives postcards from the patient's grateful wife. Further trials are on hold, however, until the Tübingen team obtains regulatory approval for their drug production process.
Success story
Or take 27-year-old Georgios. When lymph nodes in his neck became swollen, he went to a doctor, assuming flu. It was stage-four lung cancer. One blessing: Stage-four status qualified him for a Phase-I trial. He is now cancer free, a cauliflower-sized tumor gone. The immunotherapy remains a secret, as it's in conjunction with a pharmaceutical firm. But he told DW he much preferred it to chemo.
Image: NCT Heidelberg
Hope for cancer patients
Experimental immuno-therapy is often the last hope for terminally ill cancer patients. The novel drugs and procedures are attempted only when traditional therapies have failed - often repeatedly. Doctors and patients can contact the German "Cancer Information Service" (Krebsinformationsdienst) to connect with researchers testing the efficacy of experimental drugs.
