Top cancer specialist explains why it’s time to rethink what stage 4 means

For many, a stage 4 cancer diagnosis feels like the end of the road. But, Maria Lally finds out the latest scientific advances mean patients are now treating it like other diseases that can be managed for a long time

Sir Chris Evans has been intergral to revolutionising cancer treatments and is currently treating Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor who dubbed him the ‘Elon Musk’ of cancer treaments (Chris Evans)

Sixty years ago next month, in the Welsh town of Port Talbot, Chris Evans received his very first chemistry set for Christmas. “I was six years old. A naïve little Welsh boy, and I thought that I was going to cure all the cancer in my street,” remembers the eminent scientist and co-founder of the Cancer Awareness Trust.

Back then, he says, it felt like cancer was responsible for so many deaths around him that he decided he was going to cure it. “As a little boy, I remember my mother would become upset because another mum across the street was dying of cancer. Or my dad would tell me that John up the road was going to die soon, because he had cancer. I was always into science as a little boy so I decided I was going to create a potion, shake it in the plastic tubes in my chemistry set, and cure all the cancer around me. That was my aim. By the time I was 12, I realised I probably wasn’t good enough, and nor was my little chemistry set.”

Perhaps the latter is true, but he’s certainly spent his life working towards his original goal. Now 65, Evans, who was knighted in 2001, is a world-leading cancer scientist and one of the best-known names in biotechnology, launching several health companies, including Celsis and Rutherford Health.