Will we ever find a cure for Cancer?

[onthebottom]

.... I see your point and agree to a certain degree.

One of my closest friends had cancer at a very young age and is in remission. But I agree - we live longer now and because we're exposed to more than an our ancestors yet live longer ... I suppose it's inevitable.

But it's just so depressing

It seems that the majority of people who die now die of cancer..... I'm in my early 30s. (cough I mean I'm 28 )... it seems as though things have changed even since I was first old-enough to understand death.... Only 2 of the 6 grandparents I've known and lost died of cancer - yet it's so rare to hear of someone dying of another cause. It's still hard for me to get my head around it all.

In an odd way I think this means that medicine is winning.... if they can keep you from dying form something else you'll get cancer when you're old... probably the best you can hope for.

On that cheery note....

 

[simon482]

cure for cancer has already been found and then hidden.

 

[james t kirk]

I take Milk Thistle, Ester C, Omega3 as part of my daily regimen. Haven't had a cold or flu bug since taking them regularly about 2 years ago. Alright now I've jinxed myself

I hear from many conspiracy theorists that the cure for cancer exists but is being withheld because it would cost the pharmaceutical industry billions of dollars per year. To me that doesn't make sense because if a company has the cure, they can patent it and are golden. I believe in the goodness of people, all it takes is one scientist to come out and say we have the cure. I don't think it exists and frankly I don't think it ever will. The human body is the most complex matter ever produced.

Yes, but there are 2 issues.

1. In the video that Jen has provided, it states that because the drug in question is old and can no longer be patented, Big Pharma is NOT interested.

2. There is no money in a cure, there is only money in "treatements" . While I agree with you that if one of the Big Pharma companies DID find a "cure" for cancer - say a one shot deal, they could charge $100,000.00 for it and people would pay, however, believe it or not, there is more money to be made in making you swallow a beaker of pills every day for the rest of your sorry assed life. The money is in the come-back business

Chris Rock hit the nail right on the head (and I firmly believe this to be true)

 

[LKD]

A young cousin of mine is a biochemist and works in a cancer research lab at a well respected hospital. I haven't asked her too much about where we stand on finding a cure for cancer. However, she tells me that there isn't much one can eat or do to prevent cancer. Doctors can do a test on your gene/dna and know for certain if you will or will not have some form of cancer later in your life. The way I see it.. Just try and live healthy by eating and living healthy - avoid smoking/drugs, fastfoods (pink slime and plenty of chemicals are put into that burger), eat vegetables and fruits (organics if you can), cut down on sugar, avoid foods with preservatives, drink plenty of green tea, moderate alcohol, exercise and sweat often... Just do them all in moderation. I wouldn't suggest binging out on certain foods or natural drugs just because its said to be healthy. Moderation is the key to everything.

Speaking of which, I need to cut down on all the bottle water I drink. All the healthy lifestyle I'm trying to follow probably makes no difference as I drink atleast 4 bottles of water each day >< no more tomorrow

Don't get too depressed on what might happen... Without sounding like a spiritual preacher, life is just temporal. We're all passing through earth and will sooner or later meet our end. Don't get too attached to things things that don't belong to you.. the past or future isn't really yours, all you have is NOW, so enjoy living today than worrying about what has happened or what might happen tomorrow.

 

[whobee]

My bro is in cancer research and oncology. He claims there is no conspiracy by big pharma already having a cure but not making it available.

Cancer is a very complex disease. That said it's hard to know which researchers are in bed with which companies or where their long term interests lie. You only have to look at the amount of time required to determine that something like long term smoking is bad for your lungs to tell that scientists can come up with any study if the funding is right.

 

[nuprin001]

Cancer is what you'll die of if you manage to survive everything else.

It's really simple: cancer is a catch-all phrase for what happens when your cells start multiplying in a funky way that doesn't allow the rest of your body to survive. It's what happens when your cells go "off plan". There are all kinds of causes for your cell multiplication going "off plan" from viruses to chemicals to sunlight, and there are genetic predispositions for it. In our modern society, some of those causes are exacerbated and some are minimized (cubicle dwellers aren't in much danger of sunlight-caused skin cancer unless they court it, but they're more vulnerable to other kinds of cancer).

Short of nanotechnology where nannites sweep away any off-plan cells away earlier in the process (which is theoretically eventually possible, but then you get into what happens if/when nannites go off plan), we won't cure cancer. Not unless we all start dying so early in our lives from other causes that we don't live long enough for cancer to get us.

IF YOU LIVE LONG ENOUGH, YOU WILL GET CANCER. That's just the statistical reality. Cancer isn't some mysterious, weird disease. It's what happens when the inevitable transcription errors in copying your genetic code so many millions of times happen to result in a cell that is 1.) able to avoid detection by your body's detection and clean-up crew, and 2.) multiplies aggressively. That's it. That's all. The food you eat, the drugs you take, you suntan you get, cups you drink from, the STDs you get (HPV, obviously), the computer screen you sit in front of, the laptop on your balls, your choice in parents, the toxic dump you live next to, the nuclear reactor you work at, etc., all ADD to the chances of one of your cells eventually fitting both the above criteria, but they don't exactly cause it. If you live long enough, you will get cancer. Get that through your heads.

All the hippie dope smoking, natural medicine (hey, Mother Nature doesn't love you: BOTULISM is the most powerful neurotoxin on Earth and it's natural) might help, might hurt. Just like that plastic cup your drinking from and the fabric softener used on the sheets you're sleeping on tonight.

Nanotechnology, or maybe that enzyme they're talking about (that helps your antibodies identify cancer cells, alleviating issue #1) or maybe something like it will help, but it won't be a cure. We are pushing at and hopefully eventually beyond the length of time that the human animal is meant to live. Once we're past reproductive age (which is really ~40, though men are able to keep going for much longer) we're just dead weight in a purely biological sense.

Now here's the kicker: cancer can be a good thing. Some cancer cells are effectively immortal. That's why they're so dangerous. But if we could figure out the sequences that keep them from dying, and applied it to the rest of our bodies...

 

[userz]

.

It seems that the majority of people who die now die of cancer..... I'm in my early 30s. (cough I mean I'm 28 )... it seems as though things have changed even since I was first old-enough to understand death.... Only 2 of the 6 grandparents I've known and lost died of cancer - yet it's so rare to hear of someone dying of another cause. It's still hard for me to get my head around it all.

Your energies would be better spent reducing your risks for heart disease and stroke by eating a balanced diet, remaining physically active, and not having a type A personality than they are by trying to make a mental note of all the potential carcinogens in the world and avoiding them. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Canada and one out of every three people will succumb to it and often with no warning signs.

 

[blackrock13]

A cure? one day. Soon, unlikely.



There are so many factors at play:

Here are a few:

Science of it:
no great models for explaining or predicting cancer exist.

different cancers have different development periods and mechanisms

today most food that we eat is Genetically modified. and has not nor will it ever be, tested. There is no requirement in canada or the usa to state that a food is GM, and this is a conscious decision by our governments.

Systemic:

researchers and research teams have a life, they need a job to raise a family and send their kids to school. Finding a solution as fast as possible just isn't a motivator.

funding and the administrative nightmare behind it eats money like crazy

profiteering by pharma and treatment organizations slows down the pace of research.

patents dont protect anything anymore, they are a joke.

I'm not sure how many scientist and researcher you deal with regularly, but more often or not it's a calling not a job. That's what it takes to handles long days, no holidays to speak of and a social life with like minded types.

With pathology research, when one bites the dust there will be others. As far Big Pharma there has been an awareness of industries reluctance to support research in orphan diseases and it is a definite scar on the industry.

 

[buttercup]

I think the "cure", when it comes won't be a cure for cancer, as such. It will be a blood test that detects cancer at the very early stages, so that treatments can be applied most effectively.

As to the bottled water, most people want bottled water, not for the water, but for the bottle. The carcinogens in the plastic leach out into the water that's stored in the bottle. So the safest thing is to throw out the water that came in the bottle, rinse it out, and refill it with tap water.

 

[underice]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be1ihuZNg84

Watch this documentary and then ask yourself if there is a serious,serious problem with corruption in the cancer biz.This is really worth watching.

Here is another.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0psJhQHk_GI&feature=related

 

[danibbler]

Quite a few people here state that if you live long enough that you will get cancer. I don't know about that. My family (both sides) has never had cancer. We don't die of cancer, we only die of old age (we live to the 80s and more), strokes or stupid actions (i.e. accidents/mishaps).

 

[nuprin001]

Quite a few people here state that if you live long enough that you will get cancer. I don't know about that. My family (both sides) has never had cancer. We don't die of cancer, we only die of old age (we live to the 80s and more), strokes or stupid actions (i.e. accidents/mishaps).

...because you're not living long enough.

It's the infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters line: with ~50 TRILLION cells in the human body (as low as 10, as many as 100 depending on which source), with the replicating cells replicating roughly once a day, with each human genome ~25,000 genes long. If you copy a 3 megabyte file (~25,000 bits) 50 trillion times, then copy them constantly for the next 80 years, you're going to end up with transcription errors. Even with the best of digital technology, you're going to get errors.

That's what cancer is, and that's why any cure for it is so fantastic that nanotechnology and the like are the most likely "cures". We're talking about very specific transcription errors in a system getting into the sextillion/septillion repetition range: it's just GOING to happen. The wonder of cancer isn't that it happens: it's that it happens so relatively rarely. Even in the case of someone who dies of cancer at the age of 80, they live 80 years with trillions of cells replicating constantly time after time after time only to die of ONE specific transcription error that his body wasn't able to detect and fight off on its own and that modern medicine couldn't defeat when it was detected by outside agencies. That's an insane level of replication success.

Chances are plenty of your relatives had cancer when they died: they just died before that cancer became a big enough deal for anyone to notice. I understand you were just trying to go with a humble brag on your family not having cancer, but it smacks of ignorance of what cancer really is.

 

[mpdvg]

Cancer is a million different diseases. There is no one cure. Yeah, sometimes we can cut it out, toxin it out with chemo, radiate it out...but a magic elixir cure ain't happenin'.
There are a million different things we are exposed to in a million different ways that increase our risk of developing cancer everyday.
Until we find a way to make our DNA perfect throughout its countless replications and impervious to all external effects, we will have cancer.
Our species will kill itself off, be wiped out by some communicable disease or natural disaster before we find a "cure for cancer."
Just be happy that you won the craziest lottery of all - life - and enjoy it while you're here. You're not only alive, but part of a small percentage of the world's population that is developed and has the ability to enjoy it. Accept that you will die, and minimize your chances of it coming sooner than necessary by making easy decisions.

 

[LKD]

saw this image on another thread

 

[Rockslinger]

I fear that cancer could be like viruses. It can and probably mutates constantly. That is what is happening with anti-biotics(s) as they become ineffective because the germs/viruses are constantly mutating.

 

[Rockslinger]

In other related news, HIV is now treatable. That is until a new strain of HIV appears and we are back to square one. Don't retire the condom:Eek: just yet.

 

[alex52]

I have knowledge of this area.
My simple advice is stop worrying about diseases, we are all going to die one day.
Its the quality of life that matters not quantity.
So make each day say count.

 

[GG2]

Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, we've become accustomed to the idea that there is a cure for everything and that we just have to discover it. But there may not be an antidote for every disease and dysfunction. We should continue to search for cures however I believe there are diseases that will forever remain intractable to us.

I don't lose sleep over it.

 

[Smash]

No they wont put out the cure that they have for Cancer, Aids and other diseases anytime soon. The money to be made is in the research not the cure so don't expect any cures. Mayyyybe in the years to come they'll throw us a bone and release a way to live with it (meds 24/7) but they'll keep the actual cure under wraps. They don't cure shit

 

[LKD]

without sounding too negative, there will never be a cure. Diseases adapt and become unresponsive to antibiotics and medicine, turning into deadlier strains.