A review entitled Past, present and future challenges in breast cancer treatment, published in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), reported that anti-oestrogen treatments have had a “greater global impact than any other treatment intervention in cancer medicine”. The flagship in hormonal, or endocrine, therapy has been tamoxifen, one of the World Health Organisation’s essential drugs.

SIOP is the multidisciplinary society devoted to paediatric and adolescent cancers. It was founded in Europe and now has branches worldwide.

Finding out if there is cancer in the prostate and if it is clinically significant has been a major problem because it is hard to image the organ. But magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has that capability – and the development of MRI technology and its applications including the prostate are European stories. However, proponents have had to battle resistance to its use by some urologists.