Cancer is not just bad luck

The establishment of a national database for known carcinogenic compounds is long overdue. All cancer-positive patients must be tested for these compounds immediately after diagnosis. Surveys are also needed to better understand and document potential environmental exposures. These are vital first steps that we must take if we are to effectively win the war on this horrible disease.

Binning and ignoring the history of thousands of 'bad luck' cancer cases is just reckless and a blight on medical science. Where is the thirst for knowledge? Why isn't the obvious being researched? This sort of dereliction borders on deceit. We have the tools to make massive inroads into this disease; let's use them.

Greater publicity should be given to the way in which the large sums spent on cancer research are being applied. How much is being directed to answering the key cancer question - 'Why'.

At the very least, we should be thinking of our children. Society should demand the removal of medical blinkers regarding environmental triggers for cancer. Kids are obviously in the firing line and far more vulnerable. If we follow the unconstrained – as opposed to the currently targeted - science, we will get those answers that will give us a huge leap forward in our journey towards that clinical utopia.