04 / Prevent and cure cancer
Biotechnology that leverages the immune system and other emerging platforms could make huge strides in the fight against cancer.
Why it matters
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, responsible for over 9 million deaths worldwide per year. In developed nations, nearly 1 in 2 adults risk developing cancer. Current diagnostic methods are insufficient to reliably detect many cancers early enough for successful therapy, let alone prevention in the first place.
What if every woman had access to a breast cancer vaccine, preventing millions of mastectomies and deaths? What if cell and gene therapies could cure the most resistant forms of cancer, like brain tumors? Today’s most effective treatments are customized based on the patient’s own cells, making them costly and time-consuming, and they are limited to certain cancer types only. In the future, the development of scalable, off-the-shelf solutions could democratize next-generation cancer immunotherapies and save millions of lives.
