Cancer scientists in Britain are launching what they call the world's first "Darwinian" drug development program in a bid to get ahead of cancer's ability to become resistant to even the newest treatments and recur in many patients.

While not abandoning the search for an ultimate cure, the "anti-evolution" project will re-focus on turning cancer into a disease controllable with drugs for many years.

This would be a little like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the scientists told reporters at a briefing.