What about a cure for cancer, period?

[kpete]

A reader vents:

I have great sympathy for those who have breast cancer and I am very aware how devastating it can be. But as a gay man who is HIV+ I also have to say that I am sick and tired of the constant in-your-face pink ribbon brigade acting as if breast cancer is the ONLY medical problem in the world. What about a cure for cancer, period? Not just breast cancer but ALL cancer. I have gotten to the point where the Komen foundation, with all of it's blither and blather and pink ribbons, simply pisses me off.
off.http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/02/the-power-of-pink-ctd.html

[frazzled]

1. Because, as I understand the science ...

There is not a single cure for the many different types of cancer. Each one has its own type of etiology. Each responds to different regimens and treatments. Scientists working on all types of different cancers are needed.

Prostate and breast cancers are two of the most common (as well as colorectal and lung).

[Booster]

2. We'll get a cure when someone puts a billion dollars in a trust for that cure. Now, we pay people

to look for a cure and, personally, I don't think they want to find it. There's just too much money involved in cancer all the way around.

[karynnj]

17. Put aside cynicism for a moment - and you will see you are wrong

First consider that the people who are actually doing the research are scientists. The dominant motivations they have are to succeed and make progress against cancer - that is why they went into this! Not to mention, their is the personal reward in being seen as having accomplished something great. For the company employing the researchers, there would be enormous gain in having this medicine - and they would have a patent on it for many years and could easily make far more money on it than on their earlier medicines.

[Booster]

31. I'm 69 yrs old & they have been looking for a cancer cure my entire life.

It's not cynicism, it's reality.

[TheWraith]

36. Yes, it's cynicism.

Just because we haven't found something yet doesn't mean nobody wants to find it. They spent a long time looking for a viable cure for polio too, but that doesn't mean that it was being covered up or not really looked for prior to the 1950s.

[Jakes Progress]

3. Chris Rock had an answer.

In one of his shows he talked about Aids. He said there would never be a cure for aids - never. If you cure someone, they don't need you any more. The money is in treatment and drugs. They want to to have the disease and keep paying over and over to treat it. A cure is short money. Treatment is long term. It is a corporate world.

[Snake Alchemist]

4. Name some cures that have been

Invented in the past.

[MattBaggins]

5. Well that all depends on how much you want to hem and haw

You could point out all the disease that are gone due to vaccinations but then the woo woo anti-vaccers are going to go ballistic. You could point out the disease brought on by parasites that have cures but then someone will claim that doesn't count. One could also consider dietary disease such as scurvy but I am sure that doesn't count either. Science bad. Woo woo good.

What are you going to get when most of America either has a down right piss poor background in the sciences or are rabidly anti-science? You can't even get a working definition of disease or cure, so it seems the exercise would be futile.

[Snake Alchemist]

11. let's keep it simple

Name something similar to cancer that has been cured.

[MattBaggins]

13. Then I will nominate Cancer

For every person that has had cancer and has used chemo, surgeries or other medical methods and procedures and then lived.

Every person that has undergone chemo and lived cancer free has received a cure. That may not fit with the imaginary "cure" the woo woo crowds want, but it fits the medical definition of cure.

[Occulus]

22. Not quite

[loyalsister]

6. Exactly

Infections are treated not cured. Viruses run their course. Diseases are managed. Illness is a part of the human experience.

[Jakes Progress]

7. Define cure.

I believe the polio vaccine counts. Small pox.

No one got rich from polio vaccine. Medical corporations would be raking in billions a year if not for Salk and Sabin.

But you can play semantics if you want. It still doesn't prove Rock's point wrong.

[MattBaggins]

8. Here is a good start

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cure

Treatment, by the way fits the definition of cure.

I love Chris Rock and he is funny as hell but until he has a MD or PhD in Biology I will take the comedy bit as amusing but nothing else.

[karynnj]

20. You ignore that the company with the "cure" would

greatly increase the profits of the company that has it. That would continue for the period the patent gives them a monopoly. Other companies would try to find a sufficiently different, better magic pill. I don't think there will be one magic pill, but for sake of argument, assume that some one finds just that.

On a personal level, the scientists involved would clearly be Nobel prize winners. As to continuing to be employed, they would be able to write their own ticket at their company, other companies, Universities, or think tanks.

[Snake Alchemist]

10. and new vaccines are still coming out

Wouldn't it be more profitable to never release them?

[karynnj]

18. Salk and Sabin both led to end of polio

In the summers before the 1950s, there were often major outbreaks that killed many and left others severely handicapped for life.

[Snake Alchemist]

19. Yes and new vaccines are still being developed and released.

Those are preventative measures though.

[karynnj]

27. True

What about the various antibiotics that work against strep throat. Before they existed, their were people who got strep throat that became scarlet fever, which progressed to Rheumatic fever, who died or became invalids. (I think there are many here who read Little Women and found that was what hurt Beth.)

[Jakes Progress]

32. Dancing on the head of a pin.

Argument for argument's sake.

Corporations run things. How is the Salk Vaccine not a cure for polio? Polio was rampant. Salk and Sabin did their work. It is not rampant. Prevention is the cure. Just what division of a comma is necessary for you?

[Snake Alchemist]

34. if you get polio and are given the Sabin

Vaccine. Are you cured?

[Jakes Progress]

35. Why are you playing?

If you take the Sabin, you don't get polio.

Why do you take the side of the corporate interests instead of the people? Why argue their points for them and cast them in the role of hero. They are lying sacks that will let you die before they let their revenue stream get cut.

If they developed a drug that prevented prostrate cancer, would you say that it was not a cure?

[Snake Alchemist]

37. So you agree it's a preventative medicine?

It doesn't cure an existing disease. Recognizing the limits of science is not defending corporations. We can't cure almost any virii once contracted. Cancer may have genetic causes in many cases which makes it incredibly difficult to "cure."

[Jakes Progress]

39. So you argue just for arguing?

Are you shilling for Corporate Cancer or are you just really not that aware of what you are saying?

We're not talking about the "limits of science". We seem to be dealing with the limits of just how far someone will push a silly construct just to "win" a point.

A cure is a cure. Check any resource that talks about how Salk and Sabin cured polio. Do you really not understand how silly your little word game is?

[Snake Alchemist]

42. Check out the definition and verb usage

"Verb:

Relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition: "he was cured of the disease".

Noun:

A substance or treatment that cures a disease or condition.

Synonyms:

verb. heal - remedy - treat

noun. remedy - treatment - medicine - healing - medication "

When someone gets their measles shot, do you say that they've been cured of measles?

[Sgent]

28. I'm not sure I understand what your getting at

Infectious diseases have largely been cured -- its just that new ones (HIV, Hepatitis) which are more resistant take their place. For instance, chlamydia and syphilis were long time scrounges of the world and are now basically eliminated.

Other cures include malaria, bacterial pneumonia, tuberculosis, the plague, staph, etc.

In addition surgery cures a huge number of things from skin cancer to appendicitis.

If your referring to chronic conditions, they generally cannot be cured but rather controlled (at least given current knowledge). If you've had heart disease for 50 years and have a heart attack, the most we can do is extend your life 20-30 years. Same with high blood pressure, etc. These aren't cures, but they prevent you from dying much earlier.

There is some interesting research being done with stem cells and islet transplantation, but curing a condition of the body (rather than stopping an outside invader) is hard -- very hard.

Everyone comes of out this life dead... and medicine can't change that.

[Snake Alchemist]

38. You made my point perfectly.

[Jakes Progress]

40. He refuted your silly point perfectly.

[Snake Alchemist]

41. Nope, made it perfectly.

"There is some interesting research being done with stem cells and islet transplantation, but curing a condition of the body (rather than stopping an outside invader) is hard -- very hard" How many cures for virii are there? .

[Jakes Progress]

43. Nope.

Games don't win. Truth does. Your gaming for the corporate interests doesn't win an argument.

[Snake Alchemist]

44. Why don't they just cure death?

The corporations have been preventing the death cure from reach the public for years. All they need to do is stop the telomeres from lengthening. How hard could it be?

[Lunacee2012]

12. I hate to say it,

but the more I think about it the more I agree with you and Booster. It just seems like there is so much more money in treating an illness than in curing one.

[rustydog]

14. You beat me to it! "There is more money in the come back, they ain't gonna cure shit."

I'm pretty sure this is an accurate quote. This is from a show several years passed now.

[wildbilln864]

9. there's profit to be made....

when someone can be treated for cancer. Not so much for cures! The money stops when they're cured.

[slackmaster]

16. Cancer isn't one disease, and various cancers can be triggered by many disparate factors.

Genetics, toxins, diet, lifestyle choices, and unknown/other. There will never be ONE cure or preventative measure for all cancers.

HIV is much easier to control. It can't be prevented completely, but it's well known how it is spread and measures to prevent transmission are simple.

[CanSocDem]

21. At least a decade ago...

....researchers made the claim that something like 98% of cancer was enviromentally based. That might explain the lack of focus on a "cure".

Seriously, where would you start...???

.

[Snake Alchemist]

23. And then throw this into that mix

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/researchers-find-cancer-in-mummy_n_1240756.html

[CanSocDem]

24. Point taken.

However, being no fan of "genetic" excuses, there are sociological factors that may obscure legitimate "enviromental" concerns that the cancer industry would like to ignore.

I'm sure ancient civilizations also experienced social environments that discouraged or prevented full functioning of All or some physical organs.

To wit:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4861-frequent-ejaculation-may-protect-against-cancer.html

.(where's that spellcheck)

[Snake Alchemist]

25. Totally agree.

I was just pointing out what a complicated problem it is.

[hunter]

26. It seems like we know, but we don't *want* to know about environmental causes...

Coal mining and power plant emissions, auto and truck exhaust, various common foods and drinks, over-or-under exposure to sunlight, and so on.

Even when we do know, we don't stop, tobacco being the primary example of that.

And even if we could reduce or eliminate all these environmental causes, there would still be cancer. The guy who didn't get lung cancer because he never smoked might get prostate cancer later, the kid who's skin was protected from the sun and didn't get melanoma might get some kind of leukemia later.

So much easier to fund the search for a "cure" of the celebrity cancer of the week...

[Cleita]

29. We could reduce all cancers by just taking all toxins out of the environment

and giving everyone access to health care, so maybe they could get tested and beginning cancers could be caught in time. Yes, giving research money to non-profit universities, instead of for profit pharmaceutical companies, to find a cure instead of buying tons of obsolete military hardware could not only find a cure, but save lives as well.

[Highway61]

30. They will never find a cure

Way too much money to be made. Read The Cancer Syndrome by Ralph Moss. Do I sound harsh, maybe so. It's my theory. Been a nurse all my life and have seen way to much. As of late, people with $$ get the care-those without slip through the cracks.
Face it you'll pay anything to save your life and the powers that be know that. Just my opinion.

[Jakes Progress]

33. And a perceptive opinion too.

Working inside a system, but not getting rich from it, is the best way to find the horrors of that system.