40 years ago today Terry Fox, a 21 year old Canadian who lost a leg to cancer, began an east to west cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. He ran the equivalent of a full marathon every day and made it to 145 days and 5,373km before he was forced to stop and he lost his battle with cancer.
Definitely, after we find solutions for the most lethal cancers we will probably only see life expectancy go up by 5-10 years and have most people die from the 2nd and 3rd highest killers, cardiovascular and brain diseases. There are some promising possibilities for treating heart and vascular disease with things like cell therapies and tissue engineering but the brain is going to be a tough nut to crack.