Cure for cancer.

[slimjim]

Can someone explain, in simpleish terms, what are considered to be the main stumbling blocks in finding a cure/prevention for cancer. And, will we ever overcome those blocks?

[Hamish]

Cancer is in very simple terms, over active division of the cells in the body. This means that inorder to kill the cancer you have to kill the bodies own cells. It is very difficult to make a drug that will differenciate between the two. This is why Chemotherapy makes you so ill, it's kill off a lot of other cells as well. Another factor is that there are several different types of cancer and tumour hence it is unlikely that a single drug could be used to treat all of them. Like any disease which is fatal there will always be cases where the treatment is not sucessful. I think that the answer to the latter part therefore is that treatment will continue to improve but will never be 100% sucessful.

[woofgang]

Hamish is right, also difficult as it may be to accept, some cancers are part of the process of aging, the body gradually becomes less able to produce normal cells, also less able to recognise and destroy cells which are not normal. We are designed with in built obsolescence, one of the reasons that more cancers are now seen is that we are living longer. In ages gone by, something else would have carried us off first!

[bluedolphin]

It is my understanding that chemotherapy only slows down or stops quickly dividing cells ...hence ur hair usually falls out and as cancerous cells are also dividing at a high rate this hits them too....the best treatment is to remove the cancerous region....radiotherapy...stemcell transplant .....bonemarrow...etc....I think chemotherapy just staves off the inevitable giving u some time....months maybe a year or two....and as the above poster says ...we all gotta go sometime.

[Robinia]

In response to bluedolphin, (in case your answer has worried anyone) I've had 19 yrs so far following chemotherapy!

[bluedolphin]

I am six years post treatment but my doctor told me that chemo was not enough (had avery high chance of relapse) ..and so I had chemo, radiotherapy and a stemcell transplant ....the guy in the bed beside me didnt have the stemcell transplant and relapse 2yrs later ..... it was not my intention to worry anyone....during my treatment I found family and humour (thank u internet joke lists) to be very important parts of my treatment.

[poadster]

Essentially, cancer is more complex than peoples' current ability to cure it. Does that answer the question?

[norfolk boy]

the cancer cell is a healthy cell which has mutated this being caused by life style,accident,hereditory etc etc.Because of the way it clones and the fact the cells never age it makes them very hard to kill