Drugs Companies And Cancer

[237SJ]

Why do some people insist that the drugs companies have already found a cure for cancer but don`t want to publicise it because they will lose money? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3485772/New-breast-cancer-treatment-wipes-tumours-just-11-DAYS-staggering-trial-reveals.html#reader-comments

[Canary42]

Because drug companies are greedy rogues.

[humbersloop]

because people's opinions can be informed by populist journalism that's both careless and extraordinarily irresponsible

[woofgang]

People just love a conspiracy theory.

[237SJ]

I`ve met chemo nurses who think that a cure for cancer has been found. I don`t agree with them

[bobbie22]

Maybe some people with cancer live in hope that the treatment they are getting will work. Hope gives them something to live for.

[woofgang]

being a chemo nurse (or a banker, teacher, plumber, vicar etcet) doesn’t mean that you don’t enjoy a good conspiracy theory.....

[Zacs-Master]

'Cancer' is a word for a very wide range of diseases where cells mutate, so pretty improbable that there would be A cure.

[wolf63]

I suppose that the drugs companies have worked out the basics of why and how we develop cancer. They might have ideas or even drugs that they think might work. Getting the stuff approved and on the market can take years

[wolf63]

Zacs - is it not just cells growing where they shouldn't?

[woofgang]

Wolf, I don’t think they have even got that far (working out what causes it) I mean they know in general terms that cells which are irritated tend to mutate and also that as we get older, we are more likely to produce mutated cells but why some people are more likely to have cells which mutate than other people (apart from heredity, and even then its an observed fact rather than knowing why) The other thing I remember being told by an oncologist years ago is that cell mutation is a natural part of life. Its a part of the mechanism of evolution. He also said that if you looked for it (he did in the sixties as part of his research) a huge percentage of people over 70 who died of something else entirely and had never had cancer diagnosed, would have a cancerous mass somewhere within their body, so not a skin cancer. It would probably be small and non metastatic but it would be there. My husband’s oncologist said something similar. He said that nowadays when people are diagnosed with cancer, if there is the possibility that it has spread, they are scanned and checked over in ways that were not possible in the recent past. The scans and imaging show up things which would not previously have been found and its sometimes not easy to know what to do about them because its not clear what the risk is.

[237SJ]

Wolf - strictly speaking that is true. Cancer cells grow where they shouldn`t once they have spread.

[sandyRoe]

Isn't there an urban myth that petroleum companies paid millions to ensure a product which would have allowed motorists to fill their tanks for a few pennies never saw the light of day?
Conspiracy theories abound.

[Peter Pedant]

O .... WHY do some people...

it is a quick headline and the writers dont understand the complexities ?

Happened in AIDS as well - there is a cure for AIDS and it is called penicillin
was one that stuck in my mind
and obviously false - give pen to someone in end stage AIDS and they still die

[woofgang]

but surely cancer cells shouldn’t grow anywhere?

[hc4361]

The prestige of being THE company to find the cure for cancer would be the big prize. The scientist that headed the discovery would surely be in line for a Nobel prize and the country that company operated from would also get a boost.

That company would find it easier to get financial support from charities hoping to cure MS, Parkinsons, dementia, dystrophies and all the other life changing and fatal diseases that are still incurable.

Some people believe that the vapour trails from airplanes are chemicals that governments are using to control the masses. How those vapours avoid the PM remain a mystery

[Old_Geezer]

I missed the part of the article which said it was being suppressed. It seems to be about coming across a combination of drugs that gave encouraging results.