By Catarina Demony
LISBON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Portugal's Champalimaud
Foundation announced on Monday the world's largest annual prize,
worth 1 million euros, for research and clinical practices
aiming to control or eradicate cancer.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and it
was responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018,
according to the World Health Organisation.
"For more than a century cancer, more than any other
disease, has occupied our thought and fears," the foundation
said.
"Despite growing knowledge on the biology of the disease and
advances in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, deaths from
cancer are continuing to rise in most countries."
The foundation, which focuses on neuroscience and oncology
research at its Lisbon base, was set up at the bequest of the
industrialist Antonio Champalimaud who died in 2004.
Last year a prize was awarded to seven scientists in the
United States and Britain who came up with a revolutionary gene
therapy cure for a rare genetic form of childhood blindness.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony;
Editing by Sergio Goncalves and Alison Williams)