• Question: can you give your opinions on cures? scientists have been searching for cures for cancer for years without luck , some say we are best finding ways to improve survival rates than full on cures which could cause a new more resilient kind of cancer to form however some say a cue is a must. what are our opinions on this?. thank you.

    Asked by VanciG to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 17 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Amanda.
    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Well, cancer isn’t just one sort of illness – there are lots of things which can cause damage to DNA and trigger cancer, see here: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/causes-symptoms/causes/what-causes-cancer

      Everybody dies of something. So in cancer, what we are mostly interested in is ‘disease free survival’ – which is how long people live without their cancer coming back. We can’t usually prove that we have got rid of every single cancer cell, just most of them. Improving disease free survival for long enough is the same thing as a cure – eventually people will die of something else, hopefully when they have lived a log time first.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      With cancer there are a few difficulties.

      Cancer is not one disease really. There are many different types of cancerous cell. Each has a different genetic footprint and different reasons for becoming cancerous. Many of these different cancers require different drugs. However, this also means that if you present with cancer many tests need to be done before doctors can decide which drug is best.

      Also, cancer is a bit like bacteria in that it reproduces and multiplies. Unless you can kill all of the cancerous cells, it is likely to come back.

      Thirdly, bacteria are very different to human cells so many drugs can target them without damaging human cells. However, cancer cells are human cells which have gone wrong. There are very few differences that scientists can target to try and kill cancer cells without killing human cells.

      Currently, some cancers are quite treatable, some are cureable. However, there are a subset of cancers which are notoriously difficult to treat or cure. Sometimes because of their location (getting drugs into or operating in the brain is difficult for example), sometimes because of their specific set of genetic mutations. Scientists will keep trying to improve the treatment for cancer, and there is a lot of money and time currently going into trying to improve cancer treatment. (There is very little available for antibiotics and infectious diseases)

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