Why is cancer so hard to find a cure for? And how close are they to finding one?

Answer 1

It is not possible to find a cure for "cancer" because "cancer is just a catch-all phrase for dangerous cellular mutations. There are over 10000 know genes in the human genome, and any one of those can be mutated to cause cells to have explosive growth, resulting in cancer. Each different mutation needs a different "cure". They are close to controlling specific cancers and for others there is no end in sight.

Answer 2

Cancer is an ancient disease. It has always been around and affects not only people, but plants and animals as well. It is not a new disease at all. The oldest written description of the disease is found in 1600 BC in Egypt . . " The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment."

The History of Cancer
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6x_the_history_of_cancer_72.asp

That being said, cancer is an umbrella term that describes over 200 or more types of disease that can affect newborn infants, toddlers, children, teens, young adults, middle aged, and older adults. It affects every country, race, both sexes, the healthy, the unhealthy, absolutely no one is immune and no one knows if or when or what type of cancer they will get.

What you do not realize is that cancer is a progressive disease that is described by Stage. Early stage cancers no matter what they are . . are treatable and most often curable just from surgery to remove the disease. What is not 'curable' is metastatic or late stage (advanced) cancer. There is not one magical treatment that will 'cure' the disease at this stage, but there is a multi-modality approach that can lead to remission and eventual cure . . still all based on complete surgical removal as the best 'cure'. What happens though is that in advanced disease the tumors wrap themselves around vital organs and blood vessels and become impossible to remove. Chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery used together can sometimes halt the progress of the disease and that can lead to remission for an undetermined time.

However, in recent years, more and more survivors are living with their cancer . . using meds to control the cancer from growing and living with their cancer. The idea is to cut off the blood supply that the tumors use to thrive . . a tumor needs a blood supply to grow, so even though the cancer may still be present it cannot grow any new tumors without having that blood supply.

Apparently, also each type of tumor has a specific protein, some of them have been identified, some have not, some are misshapen, some are a mixture . . . which means that just like a virus each specific cancer tumor can be different. But based on the idea that most types of cancer have a certain protein has led to new drugs to target that protein in hope of destroying the tumor.

There are also many other new treatments and drugs but each approach a different cancer in different ways. What drugs work for breast cancer, often do not work for a bone cancer. So each disease needs separate research. Many of the more common cancers are very close to finding individualized treatments that lead to long term remissions. A type of tumor called Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor has almost a 90 percent response to a new drug called Imatinib Mesylate:

Effects of Imatinib (Gleevec) on GIST Cells
http://www.gistsupport.org/learning-center/ask-the-professional/effects-of-imatinib-gleevec-on-gist-cells.php

There has been a breakthrough for GIST with this new drug and it has caused a stir within the oncological community. the last meeting of ASCO focused on new research and breakthroughs in the treatment of GIST and what it means for other types of cancer.
http://www.asco.org/portal/site/ASCO

Cancer continues to be a difficult nut to totally crack. One of the reasons stems from the lack of volunteers available to test new cancer drugs. All the scientists in the world cannot make a cancer patient try a new unproven drug just to see if it works for their type of cancer or not. Lab mice and animals are not a substitute for a human being. And, unfortunately the only way to test new treatments is on very, very sick people and you have to have enough of them in order to determine if something is working or not. So, trial and error on real cancer patients is the only way to find new drugs to treat deadly cancers.

Answer 3

Because there are so many kinds of cancer. And some that are more common, like lung cancer and leukemia have more priority of finding a cure. Also, cancer can spread to other parts of the body quickly so then you have to treat more than just the origin.

Answer 4

It is hard. The reason is the traditional western medicine is going a wrong direction in tackling cancers. I believe the real solution is combining western medicine and Chinese medicine.

I have survived from Stage 4 lung cancer because I took treatment with both western and Chinese medicines. Chinese medicine is trying to cure a patient through strengthening his own immune system, they believe the reason for a person to get cancer is not simply the cancer cells grow in one of his body organs. There must be something wrong in the functioning of a part or his whole body, so they try to find out what went wrong and then start working there.

Please visit my blog with my personal experience in treating lung cancer, and more discussions about Western medicine and Chinese medicine.
http://360.yahoo.com/taichang48

Answer 5

It's a mistake to think of cancer as one single disease. There are all kinds of cancer. We are making progress all the time, but the percentage of people who die from cancer remains roughly constant, partly because there are more carcinogens in our lives all the time. At the rate we're going, it's doubtful we will ever wipe cancer out completely, but many types of cancer now have an almost 100% cure rate.

Answer 6

Hi,

Here is a news story that says that an effective drug (dichloroacetates) for cancer has already been discovered and clinical trials are on to check its efficiency in humans. Let us pray that scientists are successful with this discovery and could eventually put an end to the sufferings of millions of cancer patients, around the world.

Watch this news story at the following link,
http://cancernewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2007/07/dichloroacetates-possible-cure-for.html

Answer 7

I suppose at least one reason is there are many types of cancers so their causes are different. I new a man that had cancer through out his body and I think it started in his kidneys. He was told he would be dead in six months time.
He started taking Aloe Vera in large amounts (16ozs.) or more daily and he was cancer free in 2 years.
Aloe Vera juice is more powerful than you think. You can purchase organic aloe vera juice at Wal Mart for around $7.89 a gallon. It has many other uses like lowering your blood sugar/glucose levels...good for diabetis, also strengthens amune system by cleaning out and keeping the colon clean. It will heal hemmoroids! Can't say enough good things about aloe! Just mix with your favorite juice or diet drink if you are diabetic and it wont taste bad. Also drink green tea. Not the store bought loaded with corn syrup, but the green tea you steam your self. Good for lowering high blood presure and also good to help prevent cancer.

Answer 8

I'm of the opinion that most cancers is related to diet. Here's a recent story:

"Berries May Help Prevent Cancer
Compound Found in Berries May Inhibit Gastrointestinal Cancers
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

March 26, 2007 –– Eating berries may make gastrointestinal cancers less likely, two new studies show. "

Answer 9

Contrary to other respondants, I believe that one day (not to far away) there will be a cure for cancer.

Too many people believe that cancer is many diseases grouped under one umbrella and that a specific type of cancer is due to a specific , if as yet , unidentified, cause.

One of the things that I have realised in my personal research into cancer, its causes, and its possible cure, is that it is fundamentally a symptom of modern living. Unless you live alone on top of a mountain, you are susceptable to the affects of lack of nutrients in your diet, cleaning chemicals, air polution etc,etc, and cancer manifests itself as a breakdown in the bodies natural ability to adjust itself to foreign agents(ie bacteria, viruses, or pollutants).
In other words cancer is a symptom of a weakened immune system.

The "cure' for cancer lies in the provision of assistance to modulate or boost the immune system which is, under ideal conditions, quite capable of killing cancerous cells by itself.
There are many potenial cures acknowledged by thousands of cancer survivors but will never be promoted by Big Pharma and associated scientists because they offer no way of providing unique control or future profits.

If your question is genuine, I suggest you look into natural products such as Cancer bush (or Kankerbos from South Africa), Gumbi Gumbi (from Australia), Essiac Tea (originally from Canada), Chinese herbal remedies and so on.

Somewhere amongst these natural "products" lies your answer.

Answer 10

coz in cancer disease,part of the patients` cells itself starts to invade other cells already existing which means that the immunity system fights itself assuming there`s a bacteria or something like this,we`r all hoping they could solve this mystery.