• Question: Do you think that there will ever be a cure for cancer?

    Asked by to Bethany, Hannah, Keith, Peter, Ramya on 15 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by , , , , , , , , .
    • Photo: Bethany Dearlove

      Bethany Dearlove answered on 15 Jun 2014:

      Having recently lost a close family friend to cancer, I really hope that one day we will be able to overcome cancer. However, cancer is a very complex disease (and the term actually represents over 200 types), so I don’t think it’ll ever be as simple as a single ‘cure’. Whilst some types of cancer we’re starting to know a fair bit about, for many we don’t know much at all. Just identifying the cause of disease is difficult, as there isn’t a single one: causes can include diet, radiation, viral infections and genetic defects, amongst others. Cancer growth is unpredictable too – each time a cancer cell is copied, it can accumulate more mutations (in normal cells, we have measures to prevent this happening). Therefore, a treatment might be able to kill some of the cancer but not all of it, as each cell is different. There’s a lot of research going on into new treatments though, and some cancers we almost do have what we might call a ‘cure’ – for example, more than 95% of people with testicular cancer now survive – so it’s looking positive.

    • Photo: Hannah Tanner

      Hannah Tanner answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I don’t think we will ever be able to cure all cancers. There are so many different types of cancer and different things that can cause or trigger them. Medicine, surgery and science have obviously come a long way in understanding different cancers and in helping people with cancer survive longer and I hope that continues. However, as we age our bodies eventually wear out so even if we could cure all cancers I suspect other things would eventually kill us.

    • Photo: Keith Grehan

      Keith Grehan answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      As both Bethany and Hannah mentioned cancer is really broad term the covers so many different things that it might never be possible to treat all cancers with a single method. A key problem with fighting cancer is that it is a problem with cells in our body replicating out of control. This can be caused by so many different things that there probably will never be a “magic bullet” cure. However as Hannah and Bethany mentioned we are constantly developing newer and better treatments and literally thousands of people today have survived cancers that would have been fatal just a few years ago. One thing that is common with all cancers is that the early they are detected the better so it is vital that people attend regular check-ups and follow their doctor’s advice.

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