As cancer treatments become more effective, we must ask: what is life like for the people who receive them? | Ranjana Srivastava

Many treatments are now extending lives, but the measure of progress should not end with a scan or a survival curve Two decades ago, a dear friend called me in a trembling voice. Was there hope for his young nephew , whose cancer had spread to the brain? Sadly, “no”, I said.

But today, for such patients, there are options that were unimaginable back then. Recently, researchers at the European Society For Medical Oncology presented the latest chapter results from a randomised controlled trial of a bespoke cancer vaccine for patients with high-risk melanoma. The trial involved 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed but…