Diagnostic imaging equipment has improved the resolution of its results and reduced the radiation patients receive, but the main advance has been in contrast agents. Using dye- or nano-antibody-‘decorated’ nanoparticles that circulate in the blood vessels, the scientific community is working to detect cancer and metastasis early and see if the treatment works.

About 80% of children who suffer some type of cancer overcome it. But their struggle does not end when they receive medical discharge. Heart, endocrine and fertility problems or even the appearance of a new tumor are some side effects that can manifest many years later. To prevent and deal with these consequences, survivors ask for a long-term follow-up protocol.

At the beginning of the year, the novelist Henning Mankell revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Almost immediately he decided that he would write about his illness in a Swedish newspaper. Mankell is not alone, but one of many writers who have written about their illness. Apart from whatever they might bring to the table, a recent study claims that so-called “expressive writing” can help to reduce some of the symptoms suffered by oncology patients.

The role of the immune system in fighting tumours has been well-known since 1890 when it was discovered by chance, but it has taken more than a century to gain real importance. The journal ‘Science’ has chosen cancer immunotherapy as the most significant milestone reached in 2013. This represents a change of strategy: cancer is not attacked directly; rather, the immune system’s army is released to battle with all its artillery. We will learn the full scope of these self-defence techniques over the coming years.