[Craig T]

Originally Posted by IROC

As I understand it, there will never be a "cure" for cancer. "Cancer" manifests itself in so many different ways that there really is no one "cancer". So, there is no one "cure".

Also, it seems like when one really understands what causes cancer (and I'm not one of those people) it is actually more amazing that we all don't have cancer all the time.

The fascination thing about cancer is, it's not a virus, bacteria, or foreign body. In many cases it's simply our own cells dividing and multiplying when the shouldn't be, and they don't stop. Some our immune system recognizes as a problem and some it doesn't (asymptomatic). Metastasis is when the cells invade other organs or bone, or divide so quickly that they enter the blood stream during the tumors angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the development of blood flow to feed the tumor.

You might have heard your great grandpa died of lung cancer or brain cancer, when he could have died of colon or prostate cancer. Sometimes they called it tumor of unknown primary. Often the tumors in the brain and lungs are really metastatic cells from another place that lodged there and continued to divide. Some characterizations we know the triggers (e.g. asbestos in mesothelioma, HPV in cervical and tongue and neck Squamous Cell CA), but in many we don't. We do know some are triggered by environmental exposure, but some are genetic predispositions, or viral triggers.

IROC has it right, they may find a cure for one or two types, but there are so many characterizations of cancer that there will never be a panacea cure.