Stem cells and hybrid embryos
Hybrid embryos are used simply as a mechanism to make stem cells – they are only grown for a few days and then destroyed. Several years ago we might have predicted that there would be little or no use for stem cells in cancer research, but this has already proven to be incorrect.
Recent discoveries have revealed that the genetic programming mechanisms in stem cells also play an important role in many types of cancer. An even more important discovery was that cancers also have a type of stem cell – called tumour stem cells – which appear to play a big role in the way that tumours spread and sometimes recur after treatment. Finding effective ways to prevent the spread and recurrence of cancer could save thousands of lives, so there is an urgent need for more research in this area.
AICR is not currently funding any research involving hybrid embryos, nor have we received any applications to support such research. However, it would be unwise to make any predictions about whether or not we expect to receive any such applications in future.
If we do receive any applications for research involving hybrid embryos they will be assessed, as are all applications we receive, on the quality of the scientific research proposed and the potential for it to advance our understanding of cancer and how to diagnose, treat or prevent it.
The Tobacco Industry
AICR’s objective is to work towards the prevention or effective treatment of all cancers. As a direct consequence of this objective, we are completely opposed to the use of tobacco, which remains the world’s greatest preventable cause of cancer, as well as many other serious diseases.
Whilst AICR supports academic freedom, we consider working with, supporting, or accepting support from the tobacco industry to be incompatible with the objective of improving the prevention or treatment of cancer. Accordingly, we will not accept donations from any of these sources or support anything funded by them. This includes supporting any cancer researchers who choose to work with or accept funding from the tobacco industry.
However, we realise that knowledge of the dangers of tobacco and attitudes to the tobacco industry have developed with time and we should allow people to change their minds about these issues. Accordingly, it is AICR policy not to accept applications from anyone (either as applicant or co-investigator) who is currently applying for, or has received, funding from the tobacco industry, or bodies substantially funded by the tobacco industry, within the last 10 years.
This policy also applies to anyone who has served as an employee, consultant or advisor of the tobacco industry within the last 10 years.
If an AICR grant-holder accepts funding from the tobacco industry, or bodies substantially funded by the tobacco industry, we will terminate their AICR funding.
Research on Animals
Medical researchers have studied animals for a long time. Many of the most important advances in our understanding of how the body works and what goes wrong with it when we become ill have come from animal studies These include things as basic as the discovery of blood pressure and how the heart works, through vaccines for polio and smallpox, to modern treatments for cancer and mental illnesses. Veterinary experts tell us that, for every known human disease, there will be at least one animal that also gets it. Studying the disease in animals allows us to make great progress in the development of treatments for the human condition.
Using animals in medical research raises a number of complex ethical questions. Like the vast majority of people around the world, we take the view that, if animal research is carried out according to the right standards and ethical principles, the good which comes from it outweighs the ethical costs.
These ethical principles are that animals should only be used where the research is important enough to merit it, that they should never be used if there is any non-animal method that will suffice, that the research should only use the minimum number of animals necessary to achieve the findings required and that the animals should be treated and the experiments designed so as to reduce any distress or suffering to a minimum. We only fund animal research in countries where we are confident that there are controls in place to achieve these standards.
As a cancer research charity, our ultimate objective is to help people who have, or may get, cancer. There are, of course, ethical questions about how we make progress towards that objective. Our considered view is that, to save human life and prevent human suffering, properly regulated animal research is both necessary and justified. Some people do not take this view and believe that no animal experimentation is justified. Whilst we do not agree, we completely respect their right to hold that view.