Our mutual fiends: Cancer research in a time of COVID-19

Abstract

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health services in the UK and around the world cannot be understated. Cancer care services, patient and cancer research communities have been particularly affected. Screening services, treatment and clinical trials have been halted. Research laboratories have been closed or repurposed to tackle the pandemic. Despite these profound setbacks, there are ways in which the pandemic is accelerating areas of cancer research. In the context of a new cancer research exhibition planned by the Science Museum Group, Cancer Revolution: Science, innovation and hope, this essay draws out some remarkable parallels between cancer science and the remarkable research effort seeking to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowledge and therapeutic approaches from seemingly unrelated fields of medical research are opening up new possibilities to control both diseases. As the race to control COVID-19 has shown, the more research angles, disciplines and tools and people we can bring together to tackle the challenge cancer poses, the better our chances of staying ahead of this disease for more of us now and in future.