Cancer.

Tummy

Tummy

Tummy

Caporegime
Joined
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Now, like many other people around the World and indeed probably many people on this forum, my life has been effected by Cancer.

Just wondering how far away are we from getting a cure? Can it be stopped / cured?
 
Wasn't it recently there was some sort of cure found that kills the bad cells, but doesn't kill the good ones? But the pharmaceutical companies didn't want to know?
 
Tummy said:
Now, like many other people around the World and indeed probably many people on this forum, my life has been effected by Cancer.

Just wondering how far away are we from getting a cure? Can it be stopped / cured?
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Where there's a will, there usually is a way. But the big companies don't find "cures" terribly profitable unless it's common/recurring. And Cancer cures don't seem too profitable to the big pharmaceutical companies.

Bear in mind there are treatments where people come out the other end okay.
 
PGdude said:
Where there's a will, there usually is a way. But the big companies don't find "cures" terribly profitable unless it's common/recurring. And Cancer cures don't seem too profitable to the big pharmaceutical companies.
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Yeah - other than the fact that if there was a cancer vaccine ('cure') pretty much every single human alive would be a customer.
:rolleyes:
 
Vita said:
Wasn't it recently there was some sort of cure found that kills the bad cells, but doesn't kill the good ones? But the pharmaceutical companies didn't want to know?
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One third of people will suffer from cancer at some point in their life. A company with a monopoly on that.....

Curing cancer is not like curing, say, smallpox. Cancer is not a single disease but a whole class of diseases, as different from each other as various kinds of bacterial infection. You're fighting a multi-headed, chimeric hydra. It does not make sense to talk about finding a single cure for cancer, any more than it makes sense to say you have found a magical elixir that cures all ills.

Survival rates continue to improve as we chip away slowly at the mountain that is cancer. But we're a stretch off a true "cure".
 
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cancer is more a description of the symptons (ie a growth) the same as saying you have a cold is a general term for a set of symptoms,

some cancers can be cured now, some will soon be curable, some may not be curable for decades.

as the worlds of genetic engineering and nano-tech open up to us I'm sure everything including ageing will one day be curable...
 
No I don't think it can be "cured" in the conventional sense. Cancer can arise from so many different variables that I don't see it happening in my lifetime.
 
Bumhug said:
The cost of treatment is far greater than the cost of a cure though, so its more profitable not to have a cure
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But how many people get cancer treatment? It's a numbers game.

The majority of people will get cancer (it isn't a single thing!), especially in the Western world.
 
If anyone is interested in using their PC to participate in research that could help develop cures for some cancers and other protein folding related diseases, there is a link to the OcUK folding@home team in my sig.

There are also boinc distributed computing projects such as World Community Grid (Help conquer cancer and help fight childhood cancer projects) and Rossetta@home which contribute towards research.
 
Jimz said:
Its annoying to find the amount of MILLIONS being put towards this and yet theres still on cure.
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As stated above, the millions are not going into curing one disease. They are going into curing many thousands of diseases, which are all themselves unique in each individual.

edscdk said:
some cancers can be cured now, some will soon be curable, some may not be curable for decades.
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Spot on.
 
Cells will always mutate and change - so whilst there will be cures for numerous cancers which there currently are for some (if detected early enough), nature/life/whatever you want to describe it as, will invariably find some way of infecting us and causing us disease. It's always going to happen - it's how natural selection works. Personally I have suffered too many losses owing to cancer, and whilst I'd love them to find a cure, I know it's never going to happen, or if they do cure "cancer" another disease will develop as a result.

I don't think humans will ever be or should ever be impervious to illness. Illness and death is a sad reality we have to face - and whilst I have been to more funerals than weddins or christenings I accept that this is the way it is. One has to embrace ones short life on this earth.
 
Bumhug said:
The cost of treatment is far greater than the cost of a cure though, so its more profitable not to have a cure
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Let me see what are pharmaceticules getting more money from? Cervical cancer where treatment is mainly non patented drugs. Or a all population vaccine.

Then for drugs which can't be patented we have research charities.
Statements such as phamecuticles don't want cures is so utterly dumb. Patents only last x-number of years. They need to stay above their competitors and for non finically viable there are the charities.
 
Tummy said:
Now, like many other people around the World and indeed probably many people on this forum, my life has been effected by Cancer.

Just wondering how far away are we from getting a cure? Can it be stopped / cured?
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there are cures, and preventions for specific types of cancer, but each is so different, that a single cure is not really possible.

some, e.g. cervical cancers like HPV are caused by a virus, others by radiation, chemicals etc.

one size does not fit all i'm afraid.

having said that cancer is no longer as devastating as it used to be thanks to early identification and treatment which gives many a positive prognosis.
 
Bumhug said:
The cost of treatment is far greater than the cost of a cure though, so its more profitable not to have a cure
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Just because the cost of treatment might be far greater than the cure, it doesn't mean that it's more profitable. Remember that one of the reasons some things cost more than others is because that particularly product or service is more expensive to provide.

Besides, if a pharmaceutical company got hold of a patent for a drug that cures cancer, they could charge what the hell they liked
 
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