do you think we will ever see a cure for cancer?

[vash]

what are the odds?

is science even close? my dad was one of five kids..i have only one aunt that survived. that entire side of the family got decimated..doesnt bode well for us offspring. 3 cousins from that side..yup. i dont know what happened. maybe they were born under a nuclear powerplant.

as i get older, i hear more and more about it. this past saturday, a good friend of the family...their 25 year old daughter had a last ditch surgery to try to stop it. if not, they go into "comfort" mode. sad.

i wish mutation was more like X-men stuff, and less like cancer..but life aint a fantasy. will we ever see cancer cured in our lifetime?

[RWebb]

vash - first, I am sorry to hear about your family.

no, not "a" cure, but you will see a lot of treatments that will make the current status of oncology analogous to Civil War surgery

genetic analysis of the genome will be big news for cancer tmts.

1/2 of all cancer is est. to be from env'l effects, so if the will to cut cancer rates significantly was there, it could be done

[Z-man]

Unfortunately, pharm-d is big business.

Treating "chronic" diseases like diabetes, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and cancer generate a boat-load of $$ for corporations. Cure someone of these ailments, and the money's gone.

I am not saying that there isn't R&D for curing such diseases, but the focus is more on treatment vs. cure. Why cure someone who is a 'lifetime' member?

I'm a diabetic and thus, I am a lifetime member and must 'subscribe' to these pharm-d companies. Would be nice if they could focus on a cure more...

Sigh,
-Z-man.

[Dantilla]

With so many different types and causes of different cancers, I don't think it is a black or white issue, but shades of grey as technology and knowledge progress.

I doubt there is any one treatment that will wipe out all cancer.

[Tobra]

IMHO, cancer is really a group of maladies that have some characteristics in common, but many differences as well. This being the case, there will not be a "Cure for Cancer," rather various cures for various cancers.

For example, melanoma can be a particularly nasty and invasive cancer. As I understand it, it is the only cancer that can go from mother to unborn child. With close inspection it can be identified early and removed with practically no ill effect at all.

[sammyg2]

We all die. You can't save a life, you can only pospone a death.

I expect they'll soon find ways to pospone the results of cancer and delay the effects for many, many years, but I don't think they'll ever be able to eliminate it completely.

[tcar]

There are 'cures' for many types if caught in time... Lung, Prostate, Breast, Lymphoma,... even Melanoma...

[VINMAN]

I lost my brother and first wife to cancer a few weeks apart, eight yrs ago. And recently two good friends.

Wife had a rare type of carcinoma behind her nasal cavity. Only thing that helped was radiation to shrink it, but by that time it had spread. My brother had a type of skin melanoma. It took off and he died from it 6 months after they first discovered it. Oncologists figured his was related to his work. He was a commercial roofer and waterproofer for about 25 yrs.

So yeah, I'm hoping hey find a "cure". But i doubt that will happen.

[sc_rufctr]

Vash: I'm sorry to hear about your family as well...

----------------------------------------------------------------

They've been talking about a "cure" since the 70s and it hasn't happened.

So what have they been doing for 30 something years?

I had a friend who died from Leukemia. She had it as a child and it seemed to be dormant.
This lady was fit and strong and it came back in her late 30s... Within 6 months of diagnosis she was gone.

I've lost count of the people I knew who have been taken by this disease.

I hope they find a cure.

[kimlangley7]

There are so many different varients of "cancer" .. some more "curable" than others... some varients > if it is detected "soon -in time" success rate of "cure" is really good.

My wife [age 53] has multiple myeloma - a cancer of the red blood cell. She was initially diagnosed back in 2006 [ I was deployed to Baghdad at the time]... She has been enrolled in a couple of "protocols/studies " at NIH [National Institute of Health] since 2006 - Great team of doctors and staff... performing important research to "find a cure"...

It's a tough fight... but she' a fighter > "rucks up" every day and deals with it.... ya just have to face it and deal with it...

[nynor]

i've had cancer. not that it makes me an expert, but i do have an interest.

i don't think it can be 'cured'. there are too many causes, too many etymologies. i think they can and will be able to "cure" and prevent certain, perhaps many, cancers. but each is different.

then again, i am often wrong.

[jyl]

The drug industry spends a huge amount of money looking for cancer treatments (pricing can be very good for oncology drugs).

[dewolf]

Originally Posted by jyl

The drug industry spends a huge amount of money looking for cancer treatments (pricing can be very good for oncology drugs).

Treatments is the operative word. My cousin is one of Australia's leading micro biologists and although oncology is not her field she finds herself dealing with all sorts of Drs. regularly. She said the same thing Z-Man said. If you treat the disease you have an income for life. If you cure it, your cash cow dries up.

Maybe this bloke is onto something??

YouTube - 1- Sodium bicarbonate, a natural way to treat the cancer

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by Z-man

Unfortunately, pharm-d is big business.

Treating "chronic" diseases like diabetes, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and cancer generate a boat-load of $$ for corporations. Cure someone of these ailments, and the money's gone.

I am not saying that there isn't R&D for curing such diseases, but the focus is more on treatment vs. cure. Why cure someone who is a 'lifetime' member?

I'm a diabetic and thus, I am a lifetime member and must 'subscribe' to these pharm-d companies. Would be nice if they could focus on a cure more...

Sigh,
-Z-man.

This isn't totally true... There is plenty of money to be made in a "Cure". It would not be cheap and it would not be a one whack deal most likely.


Tobra is spot on about cancer though. It varies greatly, and a blanket cure all isn't really possible.

[LWJ]

I will disagree. My understanding of cancer is that cells reproduce in an out of control method and don't die on schedule. I suspect that the many causes and manifestations that we call cancer can be distilled into a manageable number of genetic interactions. I think that cancer will be "cured" in the next 50 years. Assuming that there are no big disruptions in our process. In my estimation, that may be a bigger challenge.

[jyl]

Drug companies are getting $50K+ for cancer drugs that extend survival by six months, even though the patient still dies. A new vaccine for prostate cancer that extends survival by four months in clinical trials has been priced at $90K, and will likely get it. A drug that completely cured advanced breast cancer, say, would command $300K easy. Easy. They are often biologics which have, so far, not faced much generic competition.

Diabetes drugs like Actos, Avandia, Byetta cost appx $100-200/mo or $12-24K/yr. And the patent lives run out 7-10 yrs after the drug makes it to market so the drug company doesn't get that price for the patient's lifetime, only until the drug goes generic.

The financial reward of a successful cancer drug is very high. See the stock prices of oncology-focused drug and biotech companies.

True, the mythical $1K drug that cures all cancer would be a calamity, economically speaking, for drug companies. But I think that is so far off that there's no need for conspiracy theories yet.

Quote de jyl

The drug industry spends a huge amount of money looking for cancer treatments (pricing can be very good for oncology drugs).

Treatments is the operative word. My cousin is one of Australia's leading micro biologists and although oncology is not her field she finds herself dealing with all sorts of Drs. regularly. She said the same thing Z-Man said. If you treat the disease you have an income for life. If you cure it, your cash cow dries up.



Maybe this bloke is onto something??



YouTube - 1- Sodium bicarbonate, a natural way to treat the cancer

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I will disagree. My understanding of cancer is that cells reproduce in an out of control method and don't die on schedule. I suspect that the many causes and manifestations that we call cancer can be distilled into a manageable number of genetic interactions. I think that cancer will be "cured" in the next 50 years. Assuming that there are no big disruptions in our process. In my estimation, that may be a bigger challenge.

Yes, but unless you have a way to target only specific cells to stop reproduction in... You will just kill the patient. Very few cells in the human body never reproduce. You can't just halt cell division. Its not that easy.

[Seahawk]

Like most, my family has been touched by cancer...I saw the author of the book, The Emperor of All Maladies" yesterday on Imus. Amazing interview.

I plan on buying the book. From S&S website:

The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane "biography" of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist's precision, a historian's perspective, and a biographer's passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years.

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer." The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist.

From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee's own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease.

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

[Fritz Peyerl]

I lost my wife of 43 years to Cancer. She fought for 25 years and different treatments kept her alive. But one day they run out of options.
I think we could have way more options, if the CEO's of drug companies and equipment suppliers would cut their paycheck and stop being so greedy.
The money which all the volunteers raise should go 100 percent to research and not into the CEO's bank account.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I will disagree. My understanding of cancer is that cells reproduce in an out of control method and don't die on schedule. ...

pretty much

Cancer is thought to involve mutations to genes that control other genes ("control genes"). The mutations may be somatic (after they are all present in the organism, "doing stuff") or genetic (passed down thru generations). The body also has numerous mechanisms to repair these mutations, and there is variation in that (AND the repair genes are also subject to mutation).

Mutations can affect control genes during development, control genes that control development, genes that run the repair systems, etc. etc.

Mutations can be caused by chemical exposures, radiation, etc. Deficits in the repair mechanisms can be affected by stress as well as genetic inheritance, etc.

Sound complicated? That is just the beginning... hence the low likelihood of "a" cure for cancer.



- this is all from way long ago, so the Wheaties version may be different now -- anyway, I have to go now as I need to get my telomeres rewrapped