I was looking around online for a topic that sparked my interest and could write a blog post about. And what really interested me was a website that was full of questions concerning science and one of the questions was “Will we ever cure cancer?” I expected the answer to be just as ambiguous as the cure for cancer. But the answer this website provided was a flat out ‘no’. And then I thought, “How is that even possible?” For as long as I can remember, there has always been an ongoing discussion about who will find out the cure to cancer and when, not if, we will find it. But cancer is a rare disease that is smart enough to mutate itself into different copies that can withstand different treatments. “That heterogeneity of tumors is the major, major obstacle to easy therapy,” (Fidler). The complexity of cancer tumors is what keeps any single treatment from being effective. So the dilemma in science is how to cure cancer when the entirety of a cancer cell or tumor can not be abolished by just one treatment.
Cancer could become the leading cause for death in humans.
But the problem is that if we do not stop cancer soon, it can very quickly become the number one cause for death among all humans. My thoughts on it are this. Scientists have made incredibly huge leaps and bounds when it comes to medicines and technologies and practices. So I find it hard to believe that the human race will not find the cure for cancer eventually and in due time. We have already come so far in cancer research and this research gave birth to ways in which cancer can be slowed down or even abolished in some patients. Although there has been no concrete cure for every type of cancer in all cancer patients, I think that it is only a matter of time before we find it. Some scientists would strongly disagree with my standpoint because cancer traces so far back in history which makes it hard for scientists to find the origin of the disease and makes it hard to cure. But I’m sure there were skeptics all the way back in the 1300’s who were convinced that the bubonic plague could never be cured and would simply wipe out the entire population. Today, the bubonic plague is all but unheard of. And maybe one day far beyond any near future, cancer will be an extinct disease as well.
I completely agree with what you said. I am nearly positive that someday, we will be able to find a cure for cancer. Think about all of the billions of dollars we spend on cancer research. Scientists and doctors have already made significant progress in treating cancer and helping slow it down with things such as chemotherapy and radiation. However, this brings me to another point: do we already have the cure for cancer? Think about all of the money that is spent on cancer research each year. It is highly possible that the cure for cancer is already out there, but the government hides this to continue collecting money. While this would be absolutely awful and corrupt, think about how much money the government would lose if they released the cure. We would no longer need all of these oncologists, nurses, or expensive machinery. While I hope that something like this would never be true, I would not be too surprised.
I definitely hope you are right about cancer. I (and I am sure everyone else would agree) would live a much happier life if cancer were just a distant memory. The good thing, however, is that we have made progress in attempting to cure cancer. Medicine and technology have helped us make it pretty far into the process of curing this disease. But you are right, cancer is quickly becoming a very wide-spread killer; but the good thing is, even though it effects so many people today, it is definitely not from the lack of trying. Millions of dollars go to help researches fight cancer every year and I think that is a wonderful thing. If you are curious, there is even a huge conspiracy theory that the government already has a cure for cancer. If you look here, there is a poll and 79% of people who voted believe that the government is hiding the cure for cancer. Personally, I think that is ridiculous, but there are many people who are very passionate about it.
A cure for pediatric cancer is exactly why we dance for the kids! Cancer has touched so many people’s lives that society will never give up on trying to find a cure. Already, we have made so many advancements and found new treatments to slow or stop cancer from spreading in patients. There are many alternative drugs and treatments out there that the FDA still has to look in to, but the bottom line is that we will never know the affects some of them may have until we try. Like you said the Bubonic Plague was a very fast spreading threat to society during the 1300s, but today there are several antibiotics to treat the illness. AIDs were a huge fear of many in the 1980s. For a long time doctors and scientists struggled to find treatments for their suffering patients. But today, there are regimens that can largely, slow the disease’s progress down and prevent alternate infections from forming.
It may or may not be in our life time that a cure for cancer is found, but I think that there is definitely one out there- just waiting to be discovered.
This post is so relevant to me. Every time Andrew asks what the most important scientific question is, this immediately comes to mind. It amazes me how we can be so advanced in technology and other areas, but have made little to no progress in finding the cure to cancer. Cancer affects so many people on a daily basis, and having been personally effected like many, it is mind boggling how cancer continues to run its course.