Recent scientific and medical advances have added several new weapons to our arsenal, including personalised gene therapy, artificial intelligence screening, simple blood tests -- and potentially soon vaccines.

Cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths -- almost one in six of the global total -- in 2020, according to the World Health Organization.

Ahead of World Cancer Day on Saturday, here are some of the promising recent developments in diagnosing and treating the disease.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy drugs, which stimulate the immune system to track down and kill cancerous cells, have been one the biggest advances in cancer treatment over the last decade.

With fewer severe side effects than chemotherapy, immunotherapy has had a profound effect on the treatment of several types of cancer.

Before 2010, the survival rate for people with severe cases of the skin cancer melanoma was very low. But thanks to immunotherapy drugs, some patients can now live for 10 years or more.

However not all tumours respond to immunotherapy, which has its own side effects.

"We are only at the beginning of immunotherapy," said Bruno Quesnel, research director at France's National Cancer Institute.

Pierre Saintigny, an oncologist at France's Leon Berard cancer centre, said that different kinds of immunotherapy treatments will need to be combined "as intelligently as possible."

"With immunotherapy, we have moved up a level in cancer treatment, but steps still need to be taken for all the patients who do not benefit from it," he added.

CAR-T therapy

CAR-T therapy involves taking the T-cells from the blood of an individual patient and modifying them in a laboratory.

Then the T-cells, which are part of the immune system, are injected back into the patient, newly trained to target cancerous cells.

Another technique called Allogeneic CAR-T involves getting the cells from a different, healthy person.

So far, CAR-T therapies have mainly been effective against some kinds of leukaemia, and the process remains very expensive.

Artificial intelligence

Computer programmes using artificial intelligence (AI) have been shown to identify brain and breast cancer from routine scans with more accuracy than humans.

With AI research booming across a range of fields, it is expected to play an increasing role in other ways to diagnose cancer.

"Thanks to artificial intelligence, we will be able to identify which patients can benefit from shorter treatment," said Fabrice Andre, an oncologist France's Gustave Roussy cancer institute.

"With immunotherapy, we have moved up a level in cancer treatment, but steps still need to be taken for all the patients who do not benefit from it," he added.

CAR-T therapy

CAR-T therapy involves taking the T-cells from the blood of an individual patient and modifying them in a laboratory.

Then the T-cells, which are part of the immune system, are injected back into the patient, newly trained to target cancerous cells.

Another technique called Allogeneic CAR-T involves getting the cells from a different, healthy person.

So far, CAR-T therapies have mainly been effective against some kinds of leukaemia, and the process remains very expensive.

Artificial intelligence

Computer programmes using artificial intelligence (AI) have been shown to identify brain and breast cancer from routine scans with more accuracy than humans.

With AI research booming across a range of fields, it is expected to play an increasing role in other ways to diagnose cancer.

"Thanks to artificial intelligence, we will be able to identify which patients can benefit from shorter treatment," said Fabrice Andre, an oncologist France's Gustave Roussy cancer institute.