When cancer becomes metastatic, the prognosis is death.

Yes, there are cases where remission can last for many years, but in the majority of patients, progression is a matter of months.

Whether metastases have formed over time or cancer is directly (often unexpectedly) diagnosed as already metastatic, the impact on those involved is immense. This applies to both patients and their families.

And the future, for environmental and lifestyle reasons, is not optimistic: there are increasingly more cancer cases worldwide. In the near future, it is estimated that one in two people will eventually develop cancer during their lifetime.

Research is making progress. In the case of blood cancers, for example, immunotherapy has radically changed patient prognoses.

But when it comes to solid tumors (such as breast, prostate, pancreas, etc.), especially if they are metastatic, we are unfortunately still behind.

The new therapies in clinical trials (on humans) can extend survival, but we're still talking about months.

It's not so much about "Big Pharma" and its interests; in fact, even large multinational corporations are competing to find new treatments, even for profit. From the perspective of a cancer patient, I can assure you that nothing changes; we just want to live, and we don't care who finds the cure.

But the starting point for research that sometimes leads to surprising results is often in universities and small to medium biotechnology companies. The common thread in many promising research projects is one: they need funding to move into human trials.

In our own small way, we can do something, for example, through donations. But I would like this petition to reach people who, due to personal influence and economic wealth, can truly make a difference even individually. I would like it to reach the top 20 billionaires on the planet.

Colon-rectal, prostate, breast, pancreatic, and lung cancers are the top 5 big killers, especially when they become metastatic (remember that in 90% of cases, it's the metastases that lead to death, not the original tumor).

We ask these individuals to commit (or to commit even more) to rapidly finding remedies for diseases that, despite prevention efforts, are spreading even among the younger population.

Helping to find new and better therapies means helping ourselves.

Sign and share this petition, for all cancer patients, for yourselves, and for your loved ones.

Note: this petition is addressed to Bill Gates simply because it is "easier" to contact him through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. However, the 20 billionaires to whom we want to convey our request for help are: Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer, Michael Bloomberg, Mukesh Ambani, Carlos Slim Helu, Amancio Ortega, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, Michael Dell, the Walton family, and Julia Koch.