Cancer Research gets billions of pounds in donations, why haven't they found a cure yet?

Answer 1

First off, cancer isn't just one disease. It's lots of different diseases that are all characterized by uncontrolled and inappropriate cell growth. Different types of cancers are similar enough in many that it is possible that there may eventually be a single treatment that cures many or even virtually all known types of cancers, but more likely, we'll end up with a whole bunch of different treatments for different types of cancer.

Beyond that, cancer is hard to treat because it's caused by the body's own cells growing where and when they're not supposed to. So most things that kill cancer cells kill healthy cells as well. Clearly, killing off all the patient's healthy cells would be a bad thing (since if you do that, the patient dies), which makes cancers tricky diseases to treat.

While there's no absolute "cure for cancer," there's been a lot of progress made, and many forms of cancer are far more treatable than ever before. Here are a few examples:

Thyroid cancer that hasn't metastasized (spread) can often be effectively treated by simply removing the thyroid. That's a pretty simple concept - just take out all the bad cells - and often, patients with thyroid cancer will be completely cancer free afterward. But it's hard to get every single cell, and even a single cancer cell left in the body can grow into new tumors, so sometimes the cancer recurs. Recently, doctors at Sloan-Kettering have started using radioactive iodine to treat patients with thyroid cancer after surgery. Basically, thyroid cells absorb iodine, but other cells don't, so only left-over thyroid cells (which includes any cancer cells that are left) will take up the iodine. The radioactivity kills them, which effectively eliminates any left-over cancer cells, dramatically increasing the sucess rate of the surgery. But notice that this relies on the cancer cells being thyroid cells. It wouldn't to squat against breast cancer except give the patient thyroid disease.

A new procedure that can treat many different types of cancers quite effectively is currently in clinical trials. This procedure basically involves telling the patient's own immune system to recognize the cancer cells as foreign and destroy them. This isn't effective in all cases, and sometimes leaves the patient with an autoimmune condition, but in some cases it has completely cured terminal cancer patients who thought they had only months left and are now cancer free several years later. This can be used to treat many different types of cancers, but it's not quite the same treatment every time because the compounds that are actually injected into the patient depends on the patient's specific cancer. My understanding is that they actually use parts of the patient's own tumor cells combined with some foreign cell to teach the immune system to recognize the cancer as foreign.

Another treatment uses radioactive injected around the tumor to treat a cancerous tumor on an outpatient basis. The patient comes in, has the beads injected, and walks out the same day, leaving the radiation to work on the tumor while the patient goes about his business. This can effectively treat certain tumors in a very non-invasive way, but is only a viable option for tumors that are in a location that's accessible for the needles used to insert the beads, and where the radiation won't do too much secondary damage to surrounding tissue. It also only works on single tumors, and doesn't treat metastases throughout the body. But this has effectively cured some patients, too, in many cases without ever spending a night in a hospital.

The point is that there are a lot of different treatments out there, and the number of people who survive cancer is constantly increasing, but it's a hard disease to treat and there will probably never be a single treatment that treats all possible types of cancer.

Answer 2

I just went through cancer, surgery and treatment. The cancer was eradicated but I am now on the hook for a drug that has no generic that will cost $300 a month for five more years. Believe me that is cheap compared to most of the other medicines. It is suppose to block estrogen and cut down the possibility of cancer returning. The cost of treatment was astronomical. Can you imagine how much money is spent and how it would bankrupt the medical profession if a cure was found? The Rx end alone would do in the pharmaceutical companies and put millions out of work. You have no idea how many people are used to do a ten minute procedure. If a cure was found it would take years to get it approved and even then the insurance companies would call it experimental in order to avoid payment. There are vaccines and one promising one in England is a $17,000 injection that is not approved in the USA. I think they look for ways treat the disease but not the cause.

Answer 3

Your lack of information is showing!

Cancer is not a single disease. And many cancers ARE curable as a result of all that research. I am living proof of that. And what problem do you have, exactly, with "donated" money? Do you think you should be in charge of the causes free people donate their resources too?

Here's a link to help you get your math right;
http://science.cancerresearchuk.org/hln/annual_reports/?version=3

And I hope you never get cancer, but I'm afraid you have about a 25% chance of contracting one form or another in your lifetime!

Answer 4

There are tones of diffrent caancers and some are stronger and more advanced than others. So it is VERY VERY hard to fine a cure for it all, some cancer can be cured do to cancer research, Save a few is better than saving none

Answer 5

Same reason why AIDs and HIV hasn't been cured. We simply don't have the skills or medicine that can do anything about it.
Cancer is similar to the body so you have to make sure you don't kill the helpful parts aswell as the cancer cells. It might sound easy but it's not.

Answer 6

Yup i agree with emily rose.It seems that she has a better understanding of cancer.Cancer is a deadly disease and it is challenging for nearly decades.A better understanding of the life process especially cell signalling and gene expression and activation of proteins which are the ones which mediate the life process.To be frank scientists are trying to understand this so as to identify these proteins which in cancer cells are causing troubles either because of the changes in the genes the master of the cellular process.The greatest challenge which we are facing are
1.Cancer is spreads rapidly and treatment and to identify this is really critical so as to treat them at the initial stages especially for the ones which cannot be detected by some conventional analytical techniques.
2.Malignant tumours have the ability to metastize the process called metastasis,by which cells from primary tumour travel from one site to other site,estabilish in some other sites(say from lungs to heart to kidneys etc.,).Hence detecting this becomes very difficult,Just imagine man u cant surgically remove all.
3.There are many different types of cancer,and each type is caused by different factors say in some people 15-20 percentile suffering from breast cancer due to over expression of HER2 genes.hence the remaining due to some other protein factors.
To cure them is not a easy joke.U gonna have to select a good drug.
4.In the drug discovery pipeline nearly 10^10 no of molecules are screened out of which only one or two are coming out successively .The rest are failed ones.
5.the present scenario is development of vaccines and drugs which are target based.the emergence of cancer cells to develop resistance to drugs is now a hot topic.as i told u earlier the metastatic potential of cancer cells are making them really deadly.in short metastasis is the the leathal weapon of cancer.
so to cure cancer requires is really a challenging task. though cancer cannot be prevented we can take some steps to safeguard ourself.u need to have a good diet,disciplined life and control ur body by means of meditation and yoga.

Answer 7

There are many types of cancer, and contrary to popular belief (at least among Americans), the science involved in fighting cancer isn't anywhere near as advanced as the movies would have you believe.

There are however cures for many forms of cancer, but they won't be cleared for use on humans for many, many years - mainly because of right wing / conservative / republican American funding.

Answer 8

The truth of the matter is, there are cures for cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses but the government doesn't want you to know about it.

I recommend this book called Cures They Don't Want You To Know About I don't remember the author but it has a lot of cures for diseases. You know the guy was even offered millions of dollars by the government if he didn't publish this book? But he did anyway. It's a pure shame how many things are kept secret from us.

It's also against the law for doctors tell their cancer patients about a natural cure for cancers. One doctor was sued because he cured a patient of a cancer COMPLETELY. The only reason this author was able to publish this book is because of his right of freedom of speech.

It sickens me to think that my dad whom died at early age of cancer could have been cured.

Answer 9

Thyroid disease is one of the most common health problems we face today. From a practical standpoint, there are many ways to approach this issue. Learn here https://tr.im/89T0p

Hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroid, is a very common problem, and there are many reasons for this, including drinking chlorinated and fluoridated water, and eating brominated flour.

Chlorine, fluoride, and bromine are all in the same family as iodine, and can displace iodine in your thyroid gland.

Secondly, many people simply aren't getting enough iodine in their diet to begin with. The amount you get from iodized salt is just barely enough to prevent you from getting a goiter.

Answer 10

Because if they do find a cure the donations will cease and all the staff will be out of a job.simple or what.