The new knowledge produced by research changes our way of living and our culture. A clear example of this is the discovery of the association between smoking and lung cancer identified in 1965 by Professor Austin Bradford Hill. Over the years, our society incorporated this technical knowledge into its common sense, changing our way of thinking and our behavior.

Nowadays, cigarette advertisements are regulated and smoking is no longer allowed in public places. There are many benefits that this behavior change brought to our society: a reduction in the incidence of heart attacks, cerebrovascular accidents (strokes), and sick children due to exposure to passive smoking.

Why should Brazil (LATIN AMERICA), a country (ONE REGION) with so many basic health problems, with problems of lack of sanitation and education, invest in cancer research? Isn't this for countries that have already overcome these difficulties?

Because it will be the leading cause of death for years to come. Carrying a great social and economic impact. It is unquestionable that Latin American countries need to solve important social and public health problems, such as access to basic health, sanitation, and education. However, investments cannot be focused only on these areas, as this way we would be taking away from our cancer patients the possibility of having access to the latest scientific advances that benefit patients around the world. The probability of dying after a cancer diagnosis is twice as likely in Latin America as in the United States or Europe. This reality can only be changed by facilitating access to the new treatments that are now available thanks to research. Thus, the resources allocated for research development are converted into direct benefits for the population, opening opportunities for access to state-of-the-art treatments that are not funded by public health systems (and, often, because they deal with new drugs, are not available even in private systems). Research and the production of local knowledge are the main weapons to change the condition of our continent, where most patients receive lower treatments than those received elsewhere.

Because it is the only way to discover new drugs to combat the various types of cancer that decimate lives and burden society socially and financially in general. Initially, there is laboratory research, where the scientist is in a laboratory developing and testing drugs, remedies to cure diseases. This initial process usually takes more than 10 years before being tested on humans. And there is clinical research, which is testing the medicine on human beings. It is through research that doctors find new and better ways to help the population prevent, diagnose, control, and treat diseases. An example of this is the great evolution of cancer treatment seen in the last 50 years and which benefits us all. The disease, which was considered a sentence of death and suffering, now presents new perspectives: we are curing more and more patients and, above all, improving their quality of life.

However, we still need to do a lot, generate more knowledge and develop more effective drugs to face the enormous challenge of cancer, especially those types regionalized in developing countries, which are not covered by global research).

In this process, the patterns and characteristics of the diseases are observed and new diagnostic procedures and treatments are tested. It is where the doctor observes not only the disease, the cell, the tumor, but especially the PATIENT, the HUMAN BEING.