The cancers are caused in animals in the same way they happen in humans, by giving the animal a chemical or radioactive insult and then either watching to see what happens, or giving another insult. Also human cancer cells may be injected into animals to look at the way cancers metastasise to other areas. How has this helped? we can now predict how tumours will spread and how to operate on them. We also have an arsnal or effective treatments. 100 years ago cancer was a death scentance no-one survived unless they were VERY lucky, now it accounts for 154,547 deaths per year in the whole of the UK but compare this with about 270,000 new diagnosis every year. Cancer deaths have FALLEN by 11% in the past 10 years and if I get breast cancer tomorrow I have an 83% chance of surviving for 5 years thanks to animal testing! Also thanks to knowledge gained from animal studies we know that about 135,000 of those diagnosed with cancer could have avoided it by listening to advice about changing their lifestyle.

People always forget that the first ones to benifit from new drugs etc are animals, even those drugs which have been shown not to work in humans.

What is your viable and safe alternative to animal testing Smiler? Obviously us all going back to running around naked, sleeping in trees and eating raw meat is one, but I think you'll have a hard time convincing other people.