Are the doctors any closer to a cure for cancer?

Answer 1

As a cancer researcher for many years, I have to agree with Oncogenomics.
First point to make: cancer is not just one illness but several diseases all characterised by uncontrolled cell proliferation and absence of control mechanisms such as DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints and apoptosis (programmed cell death). This lead to cell proliferation but also to accumulation of mutations in the genome, because of lack of mechanisms that may repair replication errors, and chromosomal abnormalities, with the result of a very aggressive and undifferentiated clone of malignant cells.

These mechanisms are the targets of, not only chemotherapeutic treatments, which have helped many cancer sufferers in going into remission and also being cured, but also (and in this I have to disagree with one of the answerer) to cancer prevention. The latter is an upcoming field in cancer research and has enormous potentials for many reasons, including medical costs.
Prevention goes into many directions, too: education towards an healthier life style; early screening, molecular chemoprevention with specific drugs.
Chemoprevention is particularly useful in populations at risk of developing cancer. A good example is women carrying mutation on the Brca1 gene, which gives a high predisposition to breast cancer. Another example is people with HNPCC, a subset of colon carcinomas with a genetic background in which some DNA repair proteins (mismatch repair, or MMR) are missing.
Finally, we know that some diseases (mainly the ones with an inflammatory background) predispose people to cancer and we can tackle that. In our lab, we are interested in the prevention of colon cancer in people with ulcerative colitis. There are several drugs developed for this purpose, the most studied is mesalazine (or 5-ASA). I could go on forever, but you could have a look at our website (work in progress and our publications)

I am open and available for discussion!

Answer 2

Throughout the world there is amazing work going on in the search for cancer cures; (note the word 'cures' since many cancers need their own specific treatment). Pups (above) might like to know that a universal cure has not been found and then suppressed, since even doctors get cancer and they would want the miracle cure to be available to them, too - as well as wanting to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine! I have a good friend working at the forefront of cancer research in one Europe's leading centres, and although excellent advances are being made, she and her colleagues have not yet found a 'magic bullet, either. However, compared with say, 25 years ago, there are now many cancers that can be cured if found early, or the patient given extra years of normal life through modern treatments.

Answer 3

If you look at survival rates and survival times 50 years ago, 20 years ago and, now. You will see improvement. 60% of people in the USA who get cancer will survive 5 or more years now. That by itself says progress.

As mentioned, cancer is not one disease. It is a collection of diseases with the common symptom of uncontrolled cell division. Just like each cold is a different illness caused by a different virus, so is each cancer a different disease defined by a specific set of genetic mutations and the cell type affected.

Cures imply no recurrence. Oncologist do not like to use the word "cure". Remission is a better word. Some remissions can be indefinite.

Current treatment of cancers mainly involves the killing of cancer cell not fixing/effecting the proteins produced by the cancer genes. It is difficult to kill all cancer cells for many reasons key amongst them: developed resistance and the inability to discriminate healthy cells from cancerous cells.

New drugs are now being developed which target only the protein produced by the mutated gene or target a surface antigen only of cancer cells or cause cancer cells to fully mature. Most of these treatments have very good effectiveness and only mild side effects. In the last 5 years, some of these drugs have been approved for cancer treatment including Gleevec, Sprycel and Tasigna for CML, Ph+ ALL and, GIST. ATRA for APL. Herceptin for breast cancer. Rituxan for lymphomas.

So, as mentioned, "cures" are/ will be produced for specific cancers not one treatment for all cancers.

These cancer conspiracies are ridiculous. Millions of people get diagnosed with cancer each year. That's alot of customers.

Answer 4

The drugs companies pay for cancer research, with charities chipping in to help, but all research goes into treament drugs and not prevention, this is because they don't want a cure, only treatments. A cure would cost them billions in lost revenue.
Otto Warburg won a noble prize for proving that cancer cells love a highly acidic low oxygen enviroment. If you eat foods which are more alkaline you can mimimise your cancer risk.
Cesium chloride was proven to halt and shrink tumors in studies with end stage cancers, also Hydrazine Sulphate was shown to be of benefit. If you take a look on cancer research UK they refer to hydrazine sulphate as rocket fuel treatment, obviously to re enforce their belief that its quack medicine, however they offer no scientific reason for their stance, they just choose to lie about studies. Remember how the tobbaco companies paid for all research into smoking risks in the 1950's and made the research look like there was no link with cancer? well the drug companies are upto the same tricks. Just like Oil companies paid for research into low fuel consumption engines then buried the research.

Answer 5

Many cancers can already be cured. The general word cancer, is used to describe many different conditions. They will probably need to be tackled one at a time, rather than to expect some miraculous, all encompassing ' cure for cancer '.

Answer 6

some cancers,yes.progress is definately being made,particularly in early detection screenings.for example,some cancers are "silent"-little or only mild symptoms,so pt is diagnosed very late,with less result of surviving,as it has had time to spread.ovarian cancer,for example,has been notoriously difficult to detect,but new screening methods have just been developed,which will catch it at a much earlier stage,therefore leading to a higher cure rate.i just read in the paper today that cancer death rates have fallen in the past 2 years-more diagnosed patients are being cured,and more are experiencing lengthy remissions.unfortunately,due to epidemic rates of morbid obesity being seen in all developed countries,the cancer rates/deaths are expected by the world health organisation to rise again,as obesity puts people at increased risk for a variety of cancers.its partly genetic,partly exposure to chemicals (in workplace ,etc.)and partly due to lifestyle factors,such as weight,over which we must take control.(easier said than done-ive gained and lost the same 15 pounds all my life!!!!).

Answer 7

Yes.

Many cancers are cured and people are living testament to medical research and progress.

The problem is that there are many types of cancers, or different parts of the body can develop cancer and some are much harder to treat than others.

Answer 8

having had human beings close to to me die of maximum cancers, i'm able to inform you this plenty. there are a number of kinds of maximum cancers. some are treatable by using chemo, radiation or surgical treatment. yet some kinds of maximum cancers might attain viral organs, then there is little that is completed. there are new issues out all of the time, perchance sometime there will be a medical look after all. yet there nonetheless isn't a medical look after the basic chilly is there?

Answer 9

i heard of a new treatment for soft tissue tumors called nanoshells, a 100-nanometer-wide sphere (roughly 1/10,000 the size of a period on this page) made of layered gold atoms wrapped around a tiny globe of silica. When bound by proteins to a tumor cell and subjected to rays of near-infrared light, which safely passes through tissue, the shell heats up, cooking the tumor tissue. It's just like poaching an egg vist the web site!!

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/d865c4522fa84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Answer 10

Sadly I don't think so when we don't even know what causes some cancers, but every break through is a life saver for someone and I wish more money could be invested into this instead of some of the other black holes it seems to get poured into.