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It's important to understand that there'll never be "a cure for cancer". Cancer is not a single disease. It's more like a meta-disease. There are tons of differ
by jghn 2y ago
It's important to understand that there'll never be "a cure for cancer". Cancer is not a single disease. It's more like a meta-disease. There are tons of different types of cancer and the path for treatment is not the same.
We've made tremendous progress in the last 20-30 years. There are some cancers that *are* effectively curable. And others still vex us just as much as they always have.
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- Terr_ 2y agoCompare: "When will we finally cure parasites", or "limb injuries".
- TheAceOfHearts 2y agoWith limb injuries, are you predicting that we'll never figure out a way to regrow limbs? It is my understanding that there's nothing inherently impossible about regrowing limbs, we are only limited by our lack of knowledge and existing capabilities.
- jvanderbot 2y agoI don't think GP was making any predictions, the comment was making an analogy to overly general disease specifications.
- Maxatar 2y agoAs an aside, it's interesting to note that there is a hypothesis that one reason why humans, and most other species, do not regrow limbs is precisely as a means of protecting against cancer. The few species that are able to regenerate limbs usually have to activate the regeneration, and that activation involves turning on an immune surveillance system that seeks out potentially cancerous cells and kill them efficiently.
- dennis_jeeves2 2y ago>It's important to understand that there'll never be "a cure for cancer". Cancer is not a single disease. It's more like a meta-disease. There are tons of different types of cancer and the path for treatment is not the same. I'll make an even border generalization. Cancer is one of the hallmarks of aging. And aging itself somewhat loosely defined will include all types of cancer and what are typically regarded as non-cancers, like Alzheimer's.
- Maxatar 2y agoSaying we can never cure cancer because it's not a single disease doesn't quite strike me as accurate. I'm not an expert so feel free to correct me, but my understanding is that there are plenty of other animals, such as the naked mole rat, that are effectively immune to all forms of cancer because while it might not technically be one disease, all forms of cancer share enough characteristics that there exist a small group of genes that are able to suppress it or develop an immune response that effectively prevents a tumor from growing.