UK cancer researchers 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.

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

This would be a little like HIV, the scientists told reporters at a briefing.

“Cancer’s ability to adapt, evolve and become drug-resistant is the cause of the vast majority of deaths from the disease and the biggest challenge we face in overcoming it,” says Professor Paul Workman, chief executive of Britain’s Institute of Cancer Research, a charity and research institute leading the new Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery.