Why do people keep getting cancer?

Question

Lately, a bunch of people I know have been getting or dying from cancer. What has caused this sickness to become common suddenly? And why is it so hard to find a cure? I just want to get some answers on this horrible subject!

Answer 1

I was in the lab two weeks ago with this bio-chemist ( I can't believe I forgot his name), he is a research scientist and he's mostly focus in finding the cure to cancer. he explained that cancer is caused by a defected cell of body. once infected, the cell stops functioning the way it was supposed to and it starts to reproduce itself. having a bunch of non-functioning cell is not a good thing for an healthy body. scientists have tried to reverse the cell and make it act normal again, but instead of curing it, the drug forces the cell to kill its own DNA which kills the whole body. the problem is, no one really know what causes the cell to defect or why does the cell kill its own DNA when given the "cure".
so, to answer your question why is it so hard to find a cure, researchers are now working with a new cure that is not yet available to the market. like I said before, instead of curing the person permanently, this drug force the cell to kill the DNA. that same drug was tested on a mouse with no effect whatsoever. at first, the mouse was infected with a human cancer cell, which gave it a tumor. but when given the cure, the mouse got better and eventually cured permanently. researchers are still trying to figure out why the drug doesn't work one hundred percent with human.


I just told you all I know about cancer,.... hope that helped

Answer 2

Well, first off, cancer is not a disease by itself. Every type of cancer is a separate disease. There will never be any one cure for cancer. There are many many different types of cancer, all with different possible cures.

As to why cancer is "suddenly" become more common, who knows. Many different theories. Doctors are getting better at detecting cancers. More people live longer, so more time to get cancer. More people smoke, drink, and are exposed to other chemicals that all cause cancer. There is no single right answer.

Answer 3

It isn't really suddenly, it has always been that way. When I was your age I too first noticed cancer. It partially was because I was older and noticed these things, and partially because although anyone can catch cancer, it is more probable in middle age and elderly. So at about your age, my Aunts and Uncles, Friends of my parents, and grandparents started to catch it too. The difference is, if caught early now a days, the survival rate is much much better.

As mentioned, Cancer is several different types. So it is difficult to find a cure as you are looking for several different cures. But, life expectancy of a cancer patient is getting a lot longer.

Answer 4

Well, I have no medical training but I believe that part of the reason is science. Yah. Science. We have come up with pesticides, chemicals, preservatives, dyes...all you have to do is read the label of almost any food we buy from the local grocery store. If you can't pronounce it how do you know what it is? We inject our animals with hormones and who knows what else and then we eat it (after slathering it with preservatives so it stays looking fresh on the 600 mile trip to our grocery store!). Everything we seem to do to help ouselves and make our life easier seems to come back and bite us right in the but! That's what cancer is. Why are our cells mutating? Because of what we are eating what we are breathing and what we are doing to ourselves. Sorry if I sound "conspiracy theory"-ish.

I think we need to get back to basics. We drive our car to the grocery store, use a cart even when we only have a few items, use plastic bags which pollute our environment and the air we breath - then we go home and eat a microwaved tv dinner sitting on the couch, and wonder why we are sick and fat. Urgh!

(then we buy a dog so we will walk more and have the conpanionship and end up hiring a dog walker!!) ....

Answer 5

I don't think cancer is any more common that it has been. It's just that when it's someone close to you, you notice it more, you become "aware" of it being in the world around you.

I don't know the cause, but in my reading I've found the suggestion that all cancer can be traced in some way back to nutritional. This includes what we eat, exercise, rest and lifestyle choices such as smoking and alcohol consumption. If we were to do those things properly, and only put things that are good for us into our bodies, we could avoid cancer.

Answer 6

People have been getting cancer since the beginning of mankind. It will always happen as long as there are carcinogens in our environment. I am not just including man-made carcinogens like chemicals and pollution but, also natural ones like viruses, sunlight (UV), radon gas, free radicals, etc.

Every person is at risk for cancer because you cannot lower your exposure to carcinogens to zero.

As to why it is hard to find a cure, realize cancer is not one disease but a description of hundred, perhaps thousands of conditions with the common symptom of uncontrolled cell growth. Each disease can be defined by the genetic mutations involved and the cell type afflicted. There will be no one treatment cures all cancers like there is no cure for the thousands of strains of the common cold.

There are many reasons why cancer cannot be cured.

The main approach to cancer treatment is to eliminate the cancer either by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, abalation, immunotherapy, etc. All these treatments may have effectiveness but, cancer cells tend to build resistance and/or hide within the body.

Newer approaches are aimed at trying to fix the genetic mutations and/or protein products of the oncogenes. Currently, there is not a single disease caused by genetic mutations that can be cured (MS, Parkinson's, Tay-Sachs, Downs, Sickle cell anemia, etc.) The diseases I mentioned arise because of a single mutation inherited from the patient's parents (germ cell). In cancer, there are multiple mutations involved and some if not all mutations occur during the patients lifetime, not inherited (somatic cell).

There is no current technology to reliably identify and manipulate the genome in a living being (in vivo). Currently, alot of research (and some applications) involve inhibiting the proteins produced by cancer genes. This can lead to chronic remissions (see Gleevec, Dasatinib, Nilotinib for CML) or survival benefit (see anti-angiogenesis drugs like Avastin, Tarceva, etc.)

Answer 7

I know so many people with cancer. The bad thing is, there is no way to prevent it. You can get cancer just by the air we breathe. From the pollution mostly. But we can do little things to help prevent it. Such as healthy eating (and finding cancer preventing foods), excercise, not smoking or drinking. Just little things, but it's not 100% preventable.